How is the economy doing?

I thought it was doing pretty good. I hadn’t really seen any problems. I know housing prices are in decline. I heard that high risk mortgages were seeing an increase in defaults. But that is to be expected. When you buy a house and an expert tells you that you can afford it, you believe them. But then in a few years your rate adjusts and you payment goes up a few thousand dollars you’re in trouble.

Then I heard that there is a marked increase in defaults on people who have the highest credit scores. That made me take notice.

I went to the mall for the first time since Christmas the other day. I noticed a few stores were boarded up. A few big stores. This mall is what I would consider to be the most successful in town, is now starting to lose tenants. There were clearance sales everywhere and more stores going out of business. I also noticed a big increase in aggressive sales people. In one sunglass store the sales person kept steering me back to the store brand when I told him I just was not interested in it. I imagine that he was told to do that because the store makes a better margin on those products. Oh and he wouldn’t leave me alone for a second. Every time I picked something up he started to say something about it and offer an alternative in the store brand. Problem was the store brand just did not have any styles I liked. We didn’t buy anything there.

I counted three stores that we used to shop in that were either closed or going out of business. There were six or seven others that had already closed.

I haven’t heard that it has been slow for salons, our business hasn’t slowed down. But what is coming next. Is the mall a sign of what is to come for Salons and Day Spas? Time will tell. Perhaps it is time to start thinking about new ways to market your services. How about a gel manicure and a gel pedicure?