I watch the news daily ( its enough that I may need prozac soon ) and see all of the doom and gloom yet when I drive through town past all of the businesses that arent dealerships and home sellers the parking lots tend to be %40 or better full during the middle of the day. The regular priced movie theater down the street from us has been %60 or more full every weekend and around %35 and up during the week days depending on the time. The strip malls are busy as is the main mall and our walmart stores are packed on an hourly basis. The retailers that arent doing well and have closed are places that have succumbed to fear and a few others that had management issues to begin with.

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http://billthewelder.wordpress.com/

Yeah - based on similar things around here (retailer parking lots, theaters, sports events, Walmart, etc.) you wouldn't know we're supposed to be in a recession! Sales/revenues are soft to be certain, but they're far from dead...!

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"Everybody has an agenda. Except me!"
(M. Crichton - R.I.P. 11/04/08)

I've been reading several papers and watching whats going on around town. Single family homes and condo's are taking a hit along with the auto industry as we all know but here in my town walgreens is starting construction on a new location while badcock furniture ( true name I kid you not ) is building one and there are about 8 other construction projects going on not including what the UGA is doing. Reading my fathers local paper his area has around 2000 apartment units being built and the area has alot of jobs open with manufacturers like Stihl to name a few. Spend a bit of time searching and you'll find that there are many locations that are doing well like Richmond VA, Madison WI, and Fargo ND which is really booming from whats being reported.

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http://billthewelder.wordpress.com/

It is not my intent to make this thread political, but, let's put some blame on the politicians in Washington, both Dems and Reps. What they are doing now is reckless and irresponsible. Instead of focusing on the root causes of the economic collapse, they continue, business as usual, to frivolously spend and waste money they don't have. Every voter in this country should be outraged and demand that term limits be placed on members of Congress. Eliminate the career politician by voting them out of office. Now THAT would be REAL change we can count on.

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TNT: WE KNOW INTERRUPTIONS
TBS: TURNER BROADCASTING SUCKS
NBC: NATIONAL BOREDCASTING COMPANY

Perhaps people are still spending the money on the small ticket items which are usually the ones that are needed and cutting back on big ticket items like houses, cars, etc. People are keeping their used cars longer than they used to which in part could be due to cars lasting longer than what they used to and people fixing their used cars instead of buying new ones or buying used instead of new. It is easier for someone to cough up a few bucks for something compared to a lot of money for the big ticket items.

Drove by Lowes today and the parking lot was at %85 capacity so spring projects are ramping up. At the same time a Tractor supply company has opened up down the street and a block away Farmers hardware closed its doors claiming the housing down turn, I've been in this place and its high prices plus lack of inventory and two inches of dust everywhere lead to its death.

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http://billthewelder.wordpress.com/

Is that new store Tractor Supply Co.? We have one here and it's doing well. Been open for about 5 years. Has a lot of stuff the local farmers need/want (naturally) but also caters to regular homeowners and pet/livestock owners with a number of unique items. I don't have a farm, but I'm in that store 3-4 x per year for special needs.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/...tractor_supply

It's sad to see Mom & Pops going under, but what you describe is typical - old, obsolete stock, or nothing really needed, dirty, cluttered, poorly-lit stores, etc. We had a sizeable local co. that was soup-to-nuts retail (food, clothing, hardware, lumber, building supplies, home and garden, large & small appliances, you name it) go under after 70+ years in business. I was sorry to see them go. I did buy from them occasionally over the past 30+ years, but apparently none of us did often enough. They had some things you wouldn't find elsewhere and a great, somewhat unique meat market, but not that much so to keep them viable. Mom & Pops can get help revitalizing and differentiating their businesses. Some of it is free or very low cost through SCORE, and SBAs, etc. I think most of them are too proud to ask for help, however...

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"Everybody has an agenda. Except me!"
(M. Crichton - R.I.P. 11/04/08)

Well, after me moaning about the stock market sites always being negative, today they make me a liar:
Globeinvestor crows "Wall street surges in best day of 2009"
Its nice to see green in my portfolio for a change

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10' Startrak, GeoSatPro Ck1, Gbox V3000 Positioner
90cm 3ABN on SG2100, Invacom Quad Lnbf. Twinhan 1020a, Dvbworld 2104 USB, Broadlogic BLSA,TBS 8920 PCI, Prof 7301 PCI, Azbox Elite

AMEN!!!

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Bobby

Here is a brief video that explains the credit crisis and the root cause of it:
The Crisis of Credit Visualized