On a normal Friday, that might not be unusual, but today is Dec. 23, two days before Christmas and, based upon past experience, this place should be hopping.
Part of the problem is the all itself, which needs — and is about to get — a long-overdue makeover. But the big issue is the economy.
While we keep hearing about signs of modest growth and easing unemployment, it is difficult to see these supposed improvements on the street (or at the mall).
In fact, the reality is more complex — as this piece in The New York Times makes clear:
Many retailers entered the season “with pretty optimistic plans” that shoppers would rush into stores and pay full price, Mr. Bassuk said. But that did not pan out, and the final days before Christmas have retailers being “much more aggressive in terms of promotions being offered,” he said.
Shoppers are filling their holiday lists against the backdrop of an uncertain year, with stubbornly high unemployment, increased food prices, volatile gas prices and unpredictability for stocks and Europe’s debt crisis. The government on Thursday said that third-quarter economic growth had not been as brisk as it previously estimated, because of a drop in consumer spending on services like health care.
and so, as the story says, everything is on sale. Sitting on a bench on the second floor, I can see sale signs in the windows of Perfumania, Piercing Pagoda, The Gap an d Justice. Kay Jewelers is offering 20 percent, Wet Sesl 40 percent and The Limited 40 percent.
This is good for last-minute shoppers like me, but not the retailers, and certainly not for the larger economy.
We continue to live with the fall out from the financialization of the economy and the bubble created by what essentially was a massive Ponzi scheme (making money on money without returning anything of value to the economy).
In the process, we have allowed large chunks of public infrastructure to decay and our industrial base to collapse. Now, most of work with the expectation that we are at best a few paychecks from being outsourced and left to earn our living in a service sector that also is in decline.
On the first floor of the mall, near the food court and escalators is a store that buys gold, a business based on our need for quick cash. A few people make their way in, hand their necklaces and earrings to the clerks for appraisal. And who can blame them.
These personal liquidators may just be the symbol of America’s 21st Century economy.
Hank Kalet 