still tough times for the economy ...

business has been kinda slow -- ok, let me be more specific -- business has been non-existent on etsy these days. the last sale i had was feb. 4th. i've had a couple of sales locally, but business locally has been pretty non-existent, too. on etsy there r tons of threads in the forums about it as well. everybody is having a bad time. i wonder if the local big box retailers r having as bad a time (i kind of doubt it but u never know). several of the smaller independent locals r going out of business, which is kinda sad to see. having closed a store myself, i know what this feels like.

a week or so ago we discovered that Hollywood Video was going out of business. its like walkable from our apt. and one of only two real video rental places. but i guess they felt like they couldn't compete with comcast on demand and netflix. i don't have either one of those -- and i know a lot of ppl who don't. when i made mention of the fact that we enjoyed renting movies there, someone suggested we try the "red box". i've seen them popping up around the area but i'm not sure i want to give some red box my credit card. something just doesn't sit well there. and i can't afford comcast on demand or netflix on a regular basis because we don't watch that many movies -- we might rent a movie once a month or less (thinking we probably contributed to the demise of hollywood video because we didn't rent more often). and honestly, i feel really badly for the ppl who r losing their jobs because of it.

the other store that is going out of business is our local birkenstock store. to some folks this is a non-issue coz they wouldn't be caught dead with a birkenstock on their foot. for me ... its the only shoe i wear because i have foot and back issues and i know they would be a lot worse if i wore something else (coz i've tried). but i didn't shop there very often either because birkies if they rn't on sale r really expensive and i could only afford them when they had sales (which wasn't often). so again -- probably contributed to their demise. but now i wonder what i will do now to get birkies for my poor feet. its not like we have a mall close by (read the mall shopping blog and u'll understand). again, ppl without jobs.

i hear all this stuff on the news about the economy getting better, but i don't see it. i don't have a job, so what r all these ex-employees of birkenstock and hollywood video going to do?

the other bad part of this is that when u close a store, u have a going out of business sale and then ppl u never saw in ur store before come in looking for bargains (which in itself isn't a bad thing), but feels to the business owner like their being taken advantage of (which, of course they r). i know, because i've been through this. yet who can resist a really good sale????

idk -- i wish i could say i see a glimmer of hope on the horizon for business owners -- the small ones i mean because it seems like the big boxes will survive no matter what. especially the wal-marts because in tough times everybody needs a place to buy things cheaply. i'm just praying that things pick up soon for all of us ...