How busy are the stores in your area?

[spinbaby]

I normally avoid going shopping on Saturday because it's so busy, but today I did and found an empty mall and an empty grocery store. It was downright creepy.

[cherokeeprogressive]

1. Three stores of note where I live. A Stater Bros., a Vons, and a Sears (K)mart.

All three are a nightmare. Constantly. We've taken to doing our grocery shopping AFTER 9pm.

[spinbaby]

4. We usually go before 8:00 am

if we have to shop on weekends. Saturday afternoons are a zoo. Until this trip. Honestly I found myself wondering if there was a Steelers game or something going on. I suspect the grocery store may have been empty because it's a fairly upscale grocery--I think more people are hitting Wal-Mart and Aldis.

[Obamanaut]

12. upscale? nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

19. Not unless you consider Stater Bros. upscale. n/t

[spinbaby]

24. Giant Eagle

Not exactly Whole Foods, but a fairly nice grocery. They're having trouble competing with places like Aldis and Save-a-Lot, but I buy there whenever I can because they're unionized.

[Warpy]

2. This is a working class barrio

so the groceries are pretty busy all day and evening Saturday and again starting on Sunday afternoon.

The dollar store is jumping.

Nobody seems to be buying anything but food and clothing at Wally's though.

[Speck Tater]

3. Don't know. I only go into town once a month any more. NT

[jwirr]

5. If the 40-50% sales are any indication they are have a hard time selling

many things. Also our mall has basically become a exercise track for walkers. Very few carrying many packages.

[bbinacan]

6. Very busy here

SW of Ft. Worth. This area is in an economic boom.

[spinbaby]

8. Oil?

Here in the Pittsburgh area we have some high-tech, but most of the actual industry has left. Even though we missed the real estate troubles, I'm seeing definite signs of an economic slowdown. Heck, the mall used to be PACKED on Saturday.

[bbinacan]

23. Not oil but natural gas

due to the Barnett Shale. Your area may be the next boom area due to the discovery of the Marcellus Shale. I do land acquisition for natural gas pipelines and when I finish the project here, I'm headed to your neck of the woods for a new pipeline project.

[zuzu98]

7. not very

I usually try to avoid the mall, but had to stop in yesterday for a particularly hard-to-find gift item. It was emptier than I have ever seen it. Employees of the stores were standing in the doorways looking around. I went to the grocery store later and it was also very quiet -- they only had one checkout lane open. I did notice that there were quite a few cars outside the dollar store.

[spinbaby]

11. Yes, exactly

There were employees standing in doorways looking around. On a Saturday afternoon!

[Ian David]

9. All the stores are closing and becoming churches. n/t

[mdmc]

10. not very busy at all

in the Hudson Valley, NY.

[blues90]

13. I haven't been in a store for years since I can't really get out

But I have noticed the fri and sat night traffic has dropped to almost nothing when it was entire madness a few years ago. There were always people circling this area.

[Hekate]

14. No Wal-Mart here. Costco has its busy hours. Macy's & other mall stores are pretty empty.

No need to ever pay full price at Macy's any more -- just wait for the rolling sales and the deep, deep discounts. We ended up with two of them less than 5 miles apart when they took over Robinson's-May, and I don't know how they've managed to keep both of them open this long.

Sears quality took a dive years ago, and I can get the same prices by waiting for Macy's sales.

Home Depot is alien territory for me, so I have no idea how they are doing.

Hekate

[skooooo]

21. Costco is great.

:thumbsup:

Always busy there.

[TomInTib]

15. Not. And one of them is mine.

www.opiahome.com

[SmileyRose]

16. The stores by me are one by one closing up and leaving.

We don't quite have miles of dead strip malls yet but there are an awful lot of empties and it's growing.

[TheFarseer]

17. looked pretty normal to me last time I went to the mall

Lots of people still have money in this town. The mortgage thing really hasn't touched us and there is only a little job loss. First Data is really the only layoffs I can think of.

[femmocrat]

18. Empty!

I go to the mall about twice a month. I was surprised at how many empty stores there are now. The Disney Store went out of business! All of the kiosks (sunglasses, florist, cell phones, etc.) are vacant now. I was aghast to see a .... massage parlor.... in one of the other places that had moved out! I think we are doomed.

Macy's is always deserted. People never got over losing Kaufmann's and didn't make the same connection to Macy's. Don't know about the big-box discount stores because there aren't any very close to me. I avoid Walmart like the plague.

We buy groceries early in the morning, so it's never crowded. (Giant Eagle in the Pittsburgh area)

We went to Home Depot on July 4th and it was packed. Went back during the week, and it was pretty empty.

:shrug:

[spinbaby]

26. Honestly, I don't know how Macy's stays in business

I never seem to find anything I want at Macy's and it makes me crazy that they have those artificially inflated prices and then have perpetual "sales."

[Beaverhausen]

20. They are all having huge sales - that much I do know

so if they are crowded, it's because people are getting things a good prices.

[Breeze54]

22. The liquer store was packed!!!

The grocery store had light traffic but I suspect many people are on vacation or shopping at the cheaper supermarket,
5 miles down the road. We don't have malls in my town and I haven't been in a mall for months, up until last week when
I cut through one to find my family. That mall was packed but it's right smack in the middle of a tourist area in a city, so
that would be normal activity there. Lots for tourists to see, buy and do! ;)

[upi402]

25. closing shop, here and there.

Some places are dead when I worried they'd be packed. I'm sick of union checkers shopping at VVal-Mart.:mad:

[SoCalDem]

31. Toys r Us is closing up shop out here.. Only been in the place a few times in the 25 yrs they were

here..

our mall is busy near the theatre, but the stores are going going gone. Gottschalks finally rolled out (after killing Harris'..:grr:..)

Macy's plundered Robinson's May who plundered The Broadway...never liked macys..and rarely go there..

[exothermic]

27. The local Walmart was about as busy as normal for Saturday.

Please don't hate me for shopping there, it is the only grocery store in this end of the county...the nearest alternative is a 68 mile trip! I noticed the brand new Walgreens kitty-corner from the WM had quite a few cars too.
Can't speak about malls, there are none in this part of the world. ;-)

[emilyg]

28. Grocery store offering $5 off for

purchases over $50. WalMart was busy. Macy's almost empty.

[Kansas Wyatt]

29. At what point do those who trumpeted a "SHOPPING ECONOMY" finally realize....

That when the masses have had their pay, hours, benefits, and jobs cut and gutted, while being hit with inflationary prices for basic needs, they run out of money to do any SHOPPING?

It took brilliant college grads to dream up and/or support this insane policy/shit?

And who sat back and didn't bring anything to a screeching halt, like republicans in the minority would over some stupid petty issue that meant nothing at all except power and greed?

Elected Representatives in Washington STOPPED representing 'We The People' long ago, nor do they give a shit about 'We The People.'

[DailyGrind51]

30. I drove buy one of the high end malls in suburban Chicago last week

The parking lot was frighteningly sparse for a weekend.