Damn time of the year!

[Lioness]

Hello folks
I haven't been here for a while. It's that crazy time of the year when mayhem breaks loose and customers become loonies!
I thought we were supposed to be in a sort of recession and that this December people would be holding onto their pennies and not spending? Yoohoo what happened?We had a totally crappy August, a not too bad September, a bloody marvelous October, but this month takes all the cookies. Hells teeth I'm tired and in need of a holiday.

How are all you folks on the other sides of all the ponds holding up? How are you feeling about Obama, the credit crunch, hell the world in general. Missed your opinions. :y115:

 

[CarlS]

Welcome back, Ma'am. It is good to see you here. You can catch up with all the Obama stuff in the political section. My own take is to wait and see.

 

[Gary]

We're all in the same handbasket moving at warp speed. I'm starting to notice lots of defation in my area; prices dropping and merchants desperate to cut inventory at drastically low prices rather than watch it rapidly decline in value.

I went shopping for a new suit to wear to my son's wedding last Saturday and to my very pleasant surprice found the $895.00 Hart Schaffner & Marx suit I wanted was marked down to $130.00.

Gasoline is now $1.55 a gallon here and still dropping daily.

My wife went grocery shopping yesterday for next week's Thankgiving cooking and she said everyone in the aisles was very carefully comparing prices, sorting coupons and seemed to be buying only the advertised specials. She said that each one of the three persons in the check out line in front of her had the checker remove items after they had been scanned.

Despite the approach of Xmas, I am trying to postpone purchases in anticipation of very, very low prices in January 2009. That is if the world is still intact.

Two weeks ago my wife announced that she wanted a carry gun. The first three shops I went to were sold out, and two of those were also sold out of all ammunition. The place I finally found what she wanted said they were selling 20-30 assault rifles daily, and prior to the election sold 2 to 3 a month.

My son is also getting his Phd this semester and over half of the schools where he had interviews scheduled for an associate professor position withdrew their invitations citing hiring freezes due to the uncertain changes that may occur.

Things look very bleak in my part of the USA. 90% of the local economy in my area is agricultural related, and we are supposed to be doing great.

Wal-Mart and the various "dollar" stores are the only businesses that seem OK. However, the international credit crisis has affected ocean freight and I have seen videos of US ports practically shut down with the reason cited as buyer's inability to get international letters of credit. I fear that retailers that sell mainly goods made in China (isn't that just about all of them now?) may run out of stock to sell.

My advice to all; hunker down like a mule in a hailstorm and take it as best you can 'til its over.

 

[CarlS]

I was in a gun shop last week and it was busier than a supermarket.

 

[Lioness]

Wow Gary things are pretty tough in your part of the world. Why the sudden interest in fire arms? Is everyone expecting a sudden burst of anarchy there?

We have a weird benefit to the Somali piracy situation, a lot of the ships that would normally sail via the Suez canal are now sailing around our shores, so the docks are compensated in the drop of freight by having the births taken up by ships that would otherwise not visit our shores.

About the only shares that are doing the funky chicken is a retail chain called Mr Price. They are a low end retail chain and now that people have to look to cheaper items, they are in the pound seats. As the saying goes, one mans feast is another mans famine.

We have been very lucky - loads of packaging companies have sunk this past year. We seem to be weathering the storm and I just hope our luck will hold out. I'm sure Farside will do the same (he is in the same industry). We just have to be leary of who we supply and keep stingent controls.

Many people we know have lost their jobs but in times like this you just have to help out where you can. Tis the time to be giving.

Chin up all the weekend is at hand.

 

[CarlS]

Lioness, I think some folks fear just the opposite of anarchy. Any discussion of these fears that I am seeing will have to take place in the Political Section. I also need to say that this is hunting season in North America and always brings increased gun and ammo sales. However the run on guns and ammo is far above the normal hunting season rush.

 

[Simmer]

One store had a bunch of AK 47s (I believe it was 100,000) and sold them in four hours right after BO was elected. I think it is more of a fear that they may be outlawed. To me they are junk guns, but a lot of people have and like them. My youngest son sells ammo at gun shows. He says that people are buying ammo by the cases and many are maxing out credit cards to do it. He likes the black guns, but for me I like the ol lever guns.

Dave