Anecdotal economic field reports (Now Stickied)

[BrewTech]

Here it is almost the end of January and I'm still seeing marked down Christmas items in stores. 70% off and no takers. This is the first time I've seen this.

Also noticed steaks marked down, guess peeps are buying them at full price anymore?

Grass fed beef at a local store here - $23.99/lb.

Individual steaks of said beef around 15 bucks.

[gunDriller]

i visited family in SoCal and went looking for a ski-hat because i couldn't find my ski hat.

lowest price i could find was $15 on sale.

ski-hats at Target - $22.

i was blown away. i was thinking, $5, maybe.


i also can't believe people's acceptance of the US gov. inflation numbers. it's so obvious that prices are going up, in general. i think 10% a year is very conservative.

yet GNP growth is 2%.

that means, even with all the stimuli, that the REAL economy is shrinking at the rate of 8% a year.

this is elementary school math.

but people just don't want to think about it.

when the economy shrinks 8% a year 4 years in a row - it's 71.6% the size it was 4 years ago. (actually more, the wheels came off more like 4 1/2 to 5 years ago.)

[MNeagle]

I like to review the local shopper coupon mags: a new one this month is buy 1 movie ticket, get 1 free. And you can buy 1 popcorn & get a free large soda. That's a first around here.