Maybe we are seeing payday cycles. Fewer shoppers during the week, everyone out on the weekends. Perhaps when gas prices rose people consolidated trips and we are still seeing the effect but for different reason now.
Most people are not aware of how bad the economic conditions are, and will continue to spend as long as they have a job and/or credit.
if everything continues to go to sh*t people may just charge as much on credit cards as they can and then go BK. i don't think this "f*k-it-all" mentality is operating right now, but one never knows...
a few things....firstly a generational shift my family would go to the shops after we finished playing our sat morning sport,in high school sport moved to sat afternoon i do think kids have less interests today itsuits the modern selfish parent who is happy to outsource activites anything to avoid interaction with the offspring and shopping centres do this very well so what im saying here is that the weekend trip to the mall has replaced plaing catch with dad please correct me on that one...secondly and this loosely ties in with 3 the habit of always buying something no matter how inexpensive or frivolous lik somone saying they feel naked if they are not spending....thirdly until a stark threat of losing your job could seem a reality then it certainly isnt in the front part of our brain....just thought of a 4th and 5th...this is all top down stuff our so called business leaders make appaling decisions/errors are promptly refunded this must filter down to the main street pschye that we will all be tarped somehow...finally i must say i detest shopping malls the air is stale the lighting/music blaring from stores etc...it is an all out assult on our senses breaking down our defences to make it just that easier to part with our credit cards
There are tons of people maxing out their credit cards right now and then just refusing to pay the balance off. They are BK anyways, so what are the credit card companies going to do? This is why so many credit card companies slashed credit lines from the lofty area of 20k to 1k or less recently (American Express did this in spades). Cardholders squeezed as issuers cut credit limits Issuers of plastic are clamping down to cut potential losses. Paying bills on time doesn't mean you're immune. By Nancy Trejos November 19, 2008 Reporting from Washington -- Cecil Bello has stumbled into a new corner of the credit squeeze. The 32-year-old management consultant has had the limits reduced on three of her credit cards. In September, U.S. Bancorp notified the Fairfax, Va., resident that she no longer had a $14,500 limit on a card that had a balance of about $5,000. Her new limit left her just $500 from being maxed out, she said..... http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-creditcard19-2008nov19,0,2176527.story
Americans are addicted to shopping and are spending money that they don't have. Every thought of that?
The mall is like a resort destination for many Americans. They might spend the entire day in the mall only to buy a pizza and some socks.
People are out to keep their sanity....to stay inside all day and listen to all the mainstream media would drive most people NUTS! In the end, I do think we will see a dramatic downturn in year over year spending....does not take a rocket scientist to figure this reality out!