Small Independent Street front Retail Stores in L.A....

[busterbrown]

are really being hit with a Shopping Malaise....

I site 2 causes.....When people are uncertain about their lives... in this case all the misery and uncertainity Trump is inflicting on our lives? People have very little interest in taking walks to their local retailers for a fun afternoon or early evenings.. This includes restaurants as well.. I’ve talked to many store owners and all say the same thing.
Sales are really off. And they can’t figure it out..

The other observation I have is that I strongly feel that our economy moves from the bottem up... The fear which undocumented Mexican and South Amwricans have amped up to the point that they rarely leave their homes. The businesses which rely on their purchases,... Bodegas, and other small stores are also having a lot of trouble..

The restaurant and manual labor workers buy from their local shops..The shop owner subsequently has extra money in their pockets and use it for perhaps buying a new washer/Dryer, Flatscreen,...those shop owners perhaps then purchase a new car..

It goes up hill... Vibrant economies do not exist beacuse of Trickle Down Economics.. Fuck You Republicans..

Any other Retailers here experiencing the same difficulties we are?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'm in Passaic County in NJ

It's affecting even fast food chains.

Popeye's Fried Chicken just opened. Good location. Clean. Food tastes good. Open late.

No customers. No cars in parking lot and that's at lunch rush hour.


Even the supermarket near Popeye's has scant cars in the lot. The aisles are clear and make shopping a breeze, but how can they afford to stay open indefinitely?

[busterbrown]

2. Wow! n/t

[OnDoutside]

3. How long has that been happening in your area ?

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Incrementally for a decade to my best guess.

[OnDoutside]

7. Ok, thanks. That's tough.

[Warpy]

4. Yes, the money pump works from the bottom up

Even most Democrats have forgotten that. It's why the economy is stalling and ready to collapse again.

Strip malls around here look like meth mouth and it's starting to affect our kitschy area of niche shops and bistros.

Of course they're going to wait for the whole thing to collapse completely before they notice that maybe something's wrong. Then they'll do all the neoliberal shit for a few months and make it far worse.

Then maybe some smart person will catch a fucking clue about what we've known all along.

[elleng]

8. Yes, 'even' most Democrats have forgotten it

(assuming, generously, they ever knew/noticed it.) 'Bottom-up' economy has been in a stall, didn't actually recover along with Obama 'recovery' which was largely, imo, 'Wall Street' and selective industrial.

Will take more than ONE smart person, will take many noticing/recognizing AND 'smart people' figuring out how to address it. I'm not sure I've seen any of those (I hope I have, and am just forgetting who and how.)

[Initech]

6. The rent is too high and the pay is too low.

So people are cutting unnecessary expenses to live. It doesn't take an economic major to figure that out.

[Eko]

9. This is

the slowest time of the year for retail. Add to that online sales are increasing. 2016 saw a 15.6% rise in online sales, Brick and Mortar retail stores are doing great if they can maintain last years sales and phenomenal if they are growing at 2% which is rare. If you want to keep retail stores open shop there, don't order online.

[busterbrown]

10. Nope...Not in My Experience

Never in the July and August.... Norm? Movie Goers, Family and friends from out of town..Nights are always warm..
Around here we always did well until after Labor Day.

On line sales for sure has been the thorn in the side of street retail.
But this is different!

[Eko]

12. Retail can be different.

If you sell canoes and kayaks then the summer months will be higher for you, but for most of retail the middle of June to August is a slow time.


https://datahero.com/blog/2013/12/19/visualizing-holiday-spending/

[busterbrown]

13. Appreciate your comments...but

As retailers what you are stated is the obvious.. The fact is that the kind of stores I’m referring to including ours understands seasonal uptick merchandise.. What I am saying is that business is very slow and past records show that this is and should be one of the busiest times of the years... It ain’t happening this year.. Bad as it has ever been! PERIOD1

[Eko]

14. Ok then.

I am sorry to hear that, I hope it turns around. The store I manage where we do 4 million a year in sales is almost right on track. We are slightly behind on comp for the month and year but ahead on the quarter. We still have a positive ebita for the year. Every year at this time we slow down, as the rest of the retail environment does and picks up in august.

[JI7]

11. It could be the heat also. I have a small place in a tourist area

But i haven't opened consistently to get an idea of how things are since i eas busy with other things.

I need to work on selling through internet also.

[womanofthehills]

15. Target CEO Warns That Hispanics May Be Shopping Less

“The Hispanic consumer in the U.S. is shopping much less,” Cornell said at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech event Tuesday in Aspen, Colorado. “They are staying home. They are going out less often.”

Cornell didn’t mention President Donald Trump by name, but he talked about a shift in behavior this year and mentioned “border towns” -- where retailers for years have depended on shoppers from northern Mexico for higher revenue. Trump took office in January after promising to crack down on undocumented immigration, especially from Mexico. Purchases by Hispanics at U.S. retailers in categories tracked by researcher NPD Group have fallen 8 percent this year.

“There’s clearly been a pullback” since Trump was elected, said Marshal Cohen, an analyst at NPD. “There’s concern about going out in an environment where you could be deported.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/target-s-chief-sounds-alarm-on-pullback-by-hispanic-shoppers

[Lee-Lee]

16. Your lower income and middle class buyers have shifted online

Where goods are cheaper and easier.

Need new ink for your printer? That small independent shop near downtown is a real hassle with parking and such. Staples? They are really high.

Pull out the Amazon app and it's delivered tomorrow for 3.99 overnight shipping and the price was lower than it was in any of the shops too. And it took me 2 minutes instead of 30+ minutes of driving, parking, shopping.

[busterbrown]

17. Correct! and a major reason

why our econonomy stinks.. For a company doing that much business (mostly autamateda)...They use very few employees.

and their pay is mediocre...

I’m in the specialized Boutique business...Amazon can’t so what we do.. Most come in because of our fantastic displays.
So foot traffic is always high no matter what the season.. Same amount of shoppers...They just aint buying

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