I feel like I am living in The Twilight Zone

[NNN0LHI]

I eat out a lot and lately several restaurants I like have closed up. The ones that are still open I go into and its only me and the employees in the place. This is at peak lunchtime periods in places I used to have to sometimes wait for a table.

I went to a buffet I like around here (Coyote Canyon) yesterday at noon and it was the same thing. Big huge pans of food piled up high. Enough to feed a hundred people and there was only two tables with customers.

Same thing at a Culvers I went to recently. My mother and I were the only people in the place besides staff and it used to be crowded as hell that time of day.

Its eerie. I don't remember it ever being like this in my lifetime.

Don

[liberal N proud]

1. I don't think we have seen the end

The idiots running the country still are living a fantasy that all is well.

[bdamomma]

6. I do want to see those idiots hitting bottom too.

sorry they deserve it.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Sounds like people have cut back on eating out

It is one of the easier things to cut back on. This does not bode well.
I see fewer cars on the road. People are cutting back on driving.

[whistle]

3. Even worse, the Outer Limits...

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits." — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s

[lonestarnot]

4. mmm.mmm.mmm. We are fucked.

[aroach]

5. They're becoming payday loan joints here.

I noticed just the other day that several buildings that used to be fast food joints are now title loan or payday loan joints. I think that says a lot about the state of the economy.

I should borrow a video camera and drive down that street. There are at least two payday/title loan joints or pawn shops on every block. There aren't very many places to eat left on this side of town.

[undeterred]

7. Its still busy at the fast food places here

and the mall parking lots are half full. Probably some decline in business, but nothing dramatic.

[Javaman]

8. And what is the real tragedy in all of this?

all that food will be thrown away instead of being given to the homeless.

[catnhatnh]

9. Perhaps....

But the larger tragedy is a viable restaurant that could have probably been talked into donating it's past leftovers if approached properly but instead they will choke on leftovers which will be thrown away, they will fold and everybody loses...

[readmoreoften]

10. I live in a city with terrible congestion and the roads are only 1/3 full.

People are staying in. It costs money to drive to the restaurant.

[Cleita]

11. So apparently that stimulus check everyone got,

isn't having the economic effect it's supposed to have. About the only store I go to anymore is the supermarket and I have noticed the shelves aren't stocked like they have been and it's like they are trying to push their old inventory on us without restocking on the popular items. The only place that was really busy that I went to today was the bank. I don't think people were pulling their savings, but it made me wonder.

[EFerrari]

12. Everyone I know is cutting back. And all our local merchants are hurting. n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Even at an L.A. bistro where people waited outside on the sidewalk every night...

I heard someone walked right in last night, and there were plenty of empty tables.

[TahitiNut]

14. "Casual dining" has taken a big hit -- closures and layoffs.

Applebee's was sold to IHOP ... Chili's has closed stores ... Bennigans ... you name it, especially those with the standaone stores. The smaller, strip-mall-resident, more niche-oriented (especially with lots of bar revenues) regional chains are holding their own.