Retail Business Closures

Like you said shailynn, not in FL. In my area, there's a study inflow of transplants, which is keeping existing businesses flush while also spurring new businesses to open up.

Things in my suburban Atlanta town continue to blossom. We have the largest movie studio outside of Hollywood and a new data center under construction will be the largest in the world and employ 1,000 people.
as far as restaurants go a Whataburger just open yesterday. Last week I went to lunch with a friend to a Japanese dumpling place that just opened. You use your cell phone to order and it goes straight to the kitchen. Your food is brought to you by a robot.

Guess it depends on where you’re at…

I know the owner of two of the places that closed. One was old and wanted to retire and didn’t have anyone to take the reins. The other said he couldn’t compete with the wages that big chains were offering servers and that combined with food costs made him give up.

In Massachusetts things would look great too if I just went with how my family, friends and community are doing; just like what others have posted. Construction all over the place, morning and evening traffic jams, no seats in restaurants...but... I also work with poor people and though no one cares, they are suffering. The great economy here cannot hide the fact that Massachusetts residents have the highest credit card debt in the entire country. It's all smoke and mirrors and the comments from the left about how great things are almost verbatim to what was being said in January 1929.

I’m also in an area of high growth. A few places I used to eat have shut down as the economy has hit some of them. Others have replaced them and more new commercial/retail construction still ongoing. Housing prices still high, but far fewer transactions likely due to interest rates. I know I’m not selling anytime soon even though I could stand to downsize. Replacing my 2 1/4 mortgage with something at current rates would offset a lot of the savings of a smaller principal.

In my area, stores in the city are closing but growing in the suburbs where I’m at. Restaurants seem to be closing at the higher rates. Everyone is ordering from door dash.

Convenience stores seem to be the really booming market. In the past 6 months Buccee’s, Sheetz. Wawa and Casey’s are all new to the area, some building multiple stores

^ interesting.

Few thoughts - take Pittsburgh PA for example - you roll to the east side (blue collar) and it’s a ghost town - entire strip malls are sitting vacant. You see 5 quick serve/fast food restaurants sitting vacant. You travel to north of the city (white collar) and there’s tremendous growth. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s popping up everywhere.

As for all the new convenience stores - I don’t get it. A lot of people flocked to them during COVID for various reasons but I don’t see it as much now. I also wonder - all these companies are paying for prime real estate, some day (sooner or later) when the majority of cars on the road are electric, what are they going to do with all that real estate? I guess people will just pull up and charge their cars instead of pumping gas? I rarely see an EV charging lot full as gas stations but then again most of the gas stations I stop at are right off the interstate.

Brick and Mortars are seeing weird pressures that don't fit old methods of analysis. The strangest sectors do well, or poorly, partly thanks to internet and Covid, partly other factors (couldn't name them).

The economy is explicable in only a few ways, IMO.

1. Profiteering and exploitation at the top. Trickle down has been proven to not work; 2020 was an ideal case in point. Record corporate profits lead to record CEO remuneration, but reduction in rank-and-file workers' real income.

2. Shareholder benefits. Many corporations, thanks to most governance over them, would be required to reduce worker wages if it's possible and doesn't hit profitability, simply because the rules say that their one top priority must be increasing returns to the shareholders.

3. Along with 2, therefore, Casino Economy. My analysis, not conventional wisdom, follows.

Back in the 90s (and late 80s) I learned, in my initial understanding of private investing, that the Stock Market is generally higher risk than other investments. You could go seriously conservative with Government Bonds, or you could go hog wild with Futures / Options trading, or you could do Precious Metals or you could do Public Utilities or you could just put everything into a bank Certificate of Deposit, etc.. So I learned, that "diversification" and "good investing" meant you put SOME of your money in the Stock Market, because it was on the riskier end. But now-a-days, EVERYONE has ALL their money in the Stock Market, buying and selling shares of companies, via their mutual fund managers. This is great for new enterprises which need investments in their start-up, very good for blue-chip and established companies that basically see growth (beyond mere profitability) as an aim, and idiotic for grandma and grandpa who need a reliable non-erase-able income. We've forced idiotic-ness onto grandma and grandpa. The bubble will burst. It's just a question of when.

^In 10 years there will be far fewer electric vehicles on the road than now. Toyota's new combustion engine will be mainstream, and people are just now finding out that electric vehicles are less environmentally friendly than gas.
Shailynn's post perfectly describes today's progressive America: rich people getting richer and living great, while the people they pretend to support watch everything around them crumble.

Nothing around me that I see. But California got hit pretty hard with that minimum wage hike. A bunch of stuff went down out there. And they are talking about asking for more already!

Chicago is awful. Whole foods by me closed. State street is all but abandoned. Jeweler's Row is half empty. The rest of the loop is just as bad.

^ wow not sure I’ve heard of many Whole Foods closing. Why do you think all these places closed? Was too much crime in the area, or just not enough foot traffic.

I know DC got decimated and a lot of businesses downtown closed because everyone was working from home during COVID and continued to do so, but on the other hand a lot of businesses have opened up in the suburbs because people found that they had to get out of the house some during the day and a lot of new lunch spots have benefited from this.

Take a look at the stock price for Dave & Busters (PLAY: April was $68, now $32) and Airbnb (ABNB: April $165, now $115).

A few months back, someone posted a lot of long time mid-range restaurants that are crashing. Additionally, delinquencies on credit cards and car loans are accelerating (no pun intended.) Some asked "Are we in a recession?" Many times it depends on how it impacts you personally.

Stock prices drop mainly due to earnings forecasts from news and quarterly reports. Expensive places are doing OK. Dave & Busters will probably do better in a few months once football is back, yet, it is an expensive place to eat, watch sports and play games.

Compounding Inflation is really catching up with people. It takes a really long time to settle the American Economy.

And sure, these issues are popping up worse regionally. A lot is still very unsettled since COVID-19. As John McClane said in "Die Hard": "Welcome to the party pal."

^Great post.

Classic line I read above was “I work with poor
people”.
-SkiDumb

My state has been consistently in the top economic growth areas since 2008. When the economic engine turns the other way, it tends to really slow down. Things don’t grow to the sky, so probably why you see so many people recommend cash to raise more liquidity for those future opportunities, which poor people will never have as they’re already priced out of the markets. We are becoming more and more about the haves and have nots, and that gap keeps widening since time began. On one hand those who have the means will keep many parts of the economy chugging along, but half of the population will barely be limping along, let alone trying to get ahead in life by accumulating appreciating assets. It’s a hard lesson to learn too late in life that you have to sacrifice a lot early on in life (financially too) to get ahead in life. I know there’s a joke about what the differences are between a recession and a depression, but sometimes it’s mostly about a certain mindset. For example with all the excesses we’ve had in the past few years, we should easily be able to stall consuming more if not necessary. It’s the reason why many people have been driving their used cars for longer periods than our past.