Our local newspaper is running some stories on how people in the area are coping with the recession and what effects the national economic conditions are having on local businesses.
Most interesting to me was the interview with the manager of the grocery store. The grocery store has seen its business improve. This I expected.
But here's what got me. The manager said the MEAT DEPT is leading in sales now. His reason was that people aren't eating out. So they're buying their steaks and roasts from Piggly Wiggly instead of from Outback.
And I'm thinking....
WHAT??? The MEAT DEPT is leading sales? So my version of cutting costs is less meat and more legumes, more potatoes and cabbage and less of apples or berries. And other people's version of cutting costs is buying meat to cook at home instead of eating at restaurants. Oy.
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LOL...its a process. Take a look at Fort Wayne next time you come here. I think I heard one time there are more restaurants per capita here than any other town. My job as a field interviewer usually specifies that we try to get a hold of people between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. in our first attempts. It almost never works here because people go from work to eat out. ALL the time.
ReplyDeleteSo when people go from that to eating in, buying meat at the grocery store is cutting costs. Eventually, they will realize that they can cut those costs, too. One habit at a time...
Want to have a scary exercise? Drive down the street in a medium to large size town, and survey how many businesses are based purely on luxury, or are duplicating the role that a supermarket or a Walmart fills (i.e. Petsmart, overabundance of pharmacies, restaurants, specialty bookstores, coffee houses, etc. ). If things continue the way they are, there are going to be lots of empty strip malls.