Οι πολίτες των ΗΠΑ δείχνουν την οικονομική κατάσταση της χώρας

Με άρθρο της, οι New York Times, αποκαλύπτουν ότι τα τελευταία τρία χρόνια οι επιχειρήσεις λιανικής πώλησης και μεταξύ αυτών οι μεγάλες αλυσίδες δείχνουν αυξανόμενα φαινόμενα πτωχεύσεων και καταστημάτων που κλείνουν (7000 πτωχεύσεις το 2007, έναντι 5000 του 2005). Κύριοι λόγοι είναι η έλλειψη πίστωσης και η μείωση της αγοραστικής δύναμης των καταναλωτών. Αλυσίδες καταστημάτων επίπλων και ηλεκτρονικών, αθλητικών υποδημάτων, ρουχισμού είτε πτωχεύουν είτε κλείνουν μεγάλο αριθμό καταστημάτων. Εκατομύρια δολάρια χάνουν εταιρείες στους τομείς της διαφήμισης, της μεταφοράς και των κατασκευαστών επίπλων, των ιδιοκτητών των εμπορικών κέντρων, που δεν πρόκειται να πληρωθούν από τους πτωχεύοντες ολικώς ή μερικώς.
Η εταιρεία Bombay, μείωσε το προσωπικό της από 3608 υπαλλήλους σε 27. Σωστά διαβάζετε, σε 27 άτομα τα οποία ουσιαστικά κρατούν την εταιρεία που έχει πτωχεύσει.
Όλοι αυτοί οι καταναλωτές που χάνουν την δουλειά τους προστίθενται στους μη-καταναλωτές και η ιστορία θα συνεχίζεται.
Η επιβεβαίωση αυτή γίνεται όμως εμφανέστερη από τις μαρτυρίες των πολιτών που ανέχονται την κυβέρνηση των ΗΠΑ υπομονετικά. Να μερικές:

1. Try paying $4.00 per gallon for 200 gallons of home heating oil four or five times during the Northeast winter and tell me if my spending habits have been changed. All retail stores will go under waiting for me to spend my "extra" cash. Thanks George!!!

2. Thank you all of you who changed the bankruptcy laws to protect the obscene profits of the credit card companies. I hope your constituents who are now losing their jobs remember this the next election.

3. I think this story misses the main point regarding debt and retailers. In the wave of retail consolidations that occurred in the 1990s and since, the smaller number of remaining retailers financed the absorption of their smaller competitors by taking on enormous debt. It is that m & a overhang, rather than the routine, seasonal extensions of credit, that made the current crisis inevitable. As usual, the sharks who financed the takeovers have long since gotten their money out, leaving workers, customers and communities to take yet another loss.

4. Magazines used to be my impulse buy. Can't afford them anymore. Decided a dress at a charity thift shop was too expensive at three dollars. The worst is, I don't go to the doctor because the 57 dollar office visit is too expensive for me. God help me if I need major medical care. There are no second jobs in this very small town. There are barely any first jobs here. I'm basically paying for utilities and gas.

5. It's actually quite amazing how little "stuff" we need. Most of us are full of clutter; many to the point where we have created a growing industry of "self storage" warehouses. (I'm workin on it ;-)Imagine that. We have so much stuff that we need to rent additional space just to "have" it in our control if not in our immediate "possession". I've always had positive associations with Fortunoff's and Sharper image, though I didn't shop there regularly...the "world" will seem different without them. Especially some of the niftier gadgets at Sharper Image that I had hoped to someday be able to afford. On the other hand, I bet we Americans could cut our "consumption" by 60% (on average) and still live quite comfortable lives. I bet that all TV, broadcast, cable, satellite etc could be disappeared tomorrow and we could still lead quite comfortable lives....hey we'd still have phones, plays, the net, live entertainments of all kinds and movies. Imagine driving around half as much and everyone who's job is mostly office work dealing with information simply telecommuting! Imagine finding the joy and Value in life from actually interacting with other human beings! Lots more playing, talking, snuggling, loving, partying, dancing, writing, reading, cooking, etc etc etc. Would it be such a horrible thing if half of us worked only part time jobs? If we had single payer high quality health care for all? If higher education were cheap and available to all ages? Imagine how much cleaner our environment would be in such an America! Imagine an America that needed to import zero fossil fuels! All this is quite possible... and if it means that we have to let go of some retail outlets to get the process started then so be it. There's no real shortage of anything we need; it's just the way we economically terrorize our selves and each other with all these insane systems based of fear vs greed... and then when someone "cheats" we go to war and start blowing stuff up and killing people... and oh what an industry THAT is. Nuff said fer now!Love Y'all!

6. As a retail store owner I can share these thoughts.1) USA is way over retailed. There is just so much differentiation possible before stores fade into sameness. Ultimately as the middle class shrinks so do retail store choices. 2) Rents are on average at least 2 to 3 times above what businesses can really afford to pay. Landlords will jack up rents for successful stores and eventuially kill the goose. 3) Top notch sales staff and employees at the consumer service level are non existent. Retail is viewed as a stepping stone low wage student type of job. The top folks are pretty good but that can't save a company when times are not easy and money is not cheap. 4)Inventory is becoming expensive in relation to its quality. Energy prices drive up the cost. The likes of the super discounters drive prices down. Basically retail is headed down the spiral of for ever lower prices and for ever lower qaulity. Debt just delays the inevitable - bankruptcy. There are inheritent limits. Consumers must expect less and pay more. To answer the call of the question directly, yes I am cutting back drastically due to high food and high energy prices. Also, we shredded our credit cards and plan to live a more basic frugal "buy what we need NOT what we want" lifestyle.Yes we are in a recession.

7. Premium gas (which my car requires) is now $4.15/gal in my area of California. And higher energy prices are causing corresponding increases in food prices. Even Costco and Trader Joe's are raising food prices. We need a break if we want any recovery to occur.

8. Yes my shopping habits changed. I don't know which data Bernanke and the Feds are looking at but I know that food prices have gone up by at least 50% in the last year. I used to shop at the upper-end grocery store but now I only buy produce there and only some of the produce. I'm considered to be in the top 10% of income and single and frankly I have no idea how families do it. Eating out is also seriously curtailed especially when it costs over $100 for 2 people.

9. I have and continue to Burn and waste almost all of what I earn. Talk about the high energy costs; the last time I filled up my 93 Toyota Camry it cost me a bit over $58, the time before that $54, and the time before that $48. These trips to the Gas Station come about every 2-1/2 to 3 weeks. You see, I'm one of the lucky ones, I barely drive a couple of miles to work ( a 10 minute ride, even in Southern Califonia's Notorious Traffic). I usually go home in the afternoon for an hour lunch, but recently I've been noticing that Darn Needle going down faster than ever before.I'd say that things are getting so bad, that I'm now seriousely considering not coming home for lunch every single day, maybe every other one.Now remember, that I'm one of the lucky ones, since I have no Children, no Car Note, no Morgage. But also remember, that if it wasn't for the ever rising cost of Rent, Gas, Beer, Coffee, Meat and Herbs that are all rising out of control. I for one, would truely be living the American Dream.May God be with all those with less means, who have been left without.

10. These tacky low wage paying chainstores deserve to go out of business. Most of the garbage they sell is not made in America so it really doesn't affect Americans. Whilst walking around New York City, I realize that this city and America in general is turning into a giant mall full of useless plastic junk. Perhaps more of these store closings would be a beneficial thing for America as these empty places would make great spaces for flea markets to sell the crap you bought when they were still solvent.

11. I've read all the comments and they are all valid and good. But there is another factor that I think may be one of the most important. It is that nobody likes what the retailers are selling. Furniture is ugly these days. Kitchen tools and appliances are too trendy. Decorative items are just way out. Clothing is hideous. Shoes, handbags, coats, you name it, are all ugly. If you'll pardon the mention, bras are driving women crazy. Nobody can find any they like anymore. I know dozens of women who would love to buy clothes and the other things I mentioned, but wear their 15 year old garments yet another season because they can find nothing they want to buy. The retail industry has got to wake up. They have gone too far away from what people want. Personally I believe that people would shop for clothing on judgment day and would shop regardless of the housing slump. The housing slump is not why people are not shopping. If retailers would bring back more traditional and well made goods people would buy them. Collectively we have just gotten tired of what's out there and won't waste our money. I believe that we are all very frustrated because we can't find what we want anymore in almost every field of retail. When money is tight people need to buy carefully and find what will serve them, and the retail world is not serving its customers these days. And that is at the heart of the matter. I believe all the other factors come after.

12. Having been on SSI (~$600/mo) most of my adult life I'm used to living frugally. I won't spend over a certain amount for any item and shop clearances and thrift stores. I've come to appreciate that I'm hard to fit--it's harder to be tempted!Food spending is especially difficult when you have decreased energy. Delivery sounds good but I can make pasta cheaper and faster. I've cut out most meat, focusing on produce and beans, lentils and rice. Every couple weeks I buy a whole chicken, on sale, roast it for dinner and have several more dinners from the leftovers.What I need I am blessed enough to already have. My entertainment is spending time with good friends, and talk is both priceless and free. Filling our lives with loving friends and family is rewarding in a way shopping never can be.

13. Yes. We are cutting back on spending. It was only briefly that we enjoyed a little "extra" money to go out to eat and buy new appliances, because I returned to a professional job 25-hours a week and my husband recieved a promotion at work.We have earned our life, and laughingly, could appear to be a poster family (nuclear family) for that amendment that defined family (that seriously silly agenda seems nostalgic). On the other hand, we are not clinging to guns, religion, or bigotry.Middle-America, Twenty years working toward the American Dream.However, the Bush administration and a good part of Congress failed middle-America, the tax-base, consumer-driven, foundation, by not regulating mortgage companies from bundling credit and selling it over seas, allowing this trillion dollar war to happen (and than contract out to mercinary companies), and excusing big oil its profits while Katrina victims still live in poisonous trailers.Today, the last heating oil delivery came: $778.78. My stop at the WalMart to purchase the weekly groceries for my family of four (a turkey breast as the only meat product)cost $154.78, and my weekly gas for my 2000 Nissan Frontier filled for $58.00.We're okay; however, we are worried about the confluence of factors within the national and international economies that are already affecting my family's life in a small town in PA.