The bellweather stock I will watch to see how the US and global economy is doing

My wife prefers Dunkin coffee. She spends over $100 a month there as the $25 re-ups on her Dunkin account show up on the credit card statement. I think it’s crazy as a non-coffee drinker but I guess it’s not a huge deal in the overall scheme of things so I keep my yap shut.

I think the drive-thru is a huge appeal. Her addiction started when she had our first kid and didn’t want to have to park, possibly wake a sleeping baby and schlep everything inside.
 
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Further to recession spending, 30ish years ago the city brought in a poverty expert from the U.S. to advise our civic government. She made some really interesting points:

- If you're near the bottom of the ladder at work but have potential to progress, have young children, an old car, and a hefty mortgage, etc., you'll likely cut back on drive-through coffee, movies, pay TV, etc., because there's light at the end of the tunnel. You know that putting a bit of extra money against the mortgage now will save you tens of thousands of after-tax dollars down the road. (This described my life at the time.)

- In contrast, the consultant pointed out that she had driven through the poorest parts of the city and had noticed the dilapidated rental houses bristling with satellite dishes. Likewise, a lot of the income of the residents went to cigarettes, fast food, and lottery tickets. This spending bought them comfort, entertainment, and hope.

The latter observation helped me to be less judgemental.
 
We'll see what happens here, our housing bubble/building and reno boom still seems to be creeping along and there are lots of people in the area getting rich on that, but if housing prices start to fall, the home builders and reno guys will see business go down quite a bit and they will have to cut back.
Already our GM dealer has his lot full of pickups and SUV's all in the 60-80k range.... Those are not flying out the door anymore, and the cheapest new vehicle on the lot is the 3 cyl 2wd small SUV's which are still $35-45k! Their inventory isn't too recession proof....
 
The people who can least afford it spend the most money at places like Starbucks.

I am retired, not working, not rich, but lack of money does not affect my preferred lifestyle.

And that is possible by not going to places like Starbucks. I have never seen the inside of one.

I mostly drink coffee at home. Made in my own drip coffee maker.
 
I buy whole beans in the big bags at the Starbucks near my office. My coworkers and I like trying different blends each time, and SB usually has some type of seasonal blend that's pretty tasty. The Starbucks store sells bigger bags of beans than Wal-Mart does, and we don't pay sales tax since it's on a military base. We have a donation basket beside the coffee maker and everybody knows no new Starbucks until the donation basket has enough $$
 
Around here, coffee is the only thing you can get at Dunkin. They never have any donuts.

I used to sit inside *$ waiting to catch the bus for my commute into the Bay Area. Never did buy any coffee but I did help them drag the tables and chairs outside in the AM. One morning the water stopped flowing. Holy smokes, there some PO'ed people in the drive thru line. I mean violently PO'ed. Some people shouldn't have caffeine.

We like the family owned places. We had our wedding at Barista's Coffee House downtown and still go there once or twice a week with the puppy. Our good friends just opened Central Coffee on the other side of downtown so we go there on Sundays. I will grab a Peet's coffee when I'm in the Raley's grocery store.

I was never a coffee drinker until 8 or 10 years ago. I don't need it everyday.
 
If you go to Starbucks and want to save money ask for a coffee with no ice, and a cup of ice on the side. You’ll get nearly double the coffee for the same price since it’s half ice. Then split the ice and coffee, and you now have two coffees for the price of one. This is what my cheap friend does when his wife brings him there.
 
GMFan said:
If you go to Starbucks and want to save money ask for a coffee with no ice, and a cup of ice on the side. You’ll get nearly double the coffee for the same price since it’s half ice. Then split the ice and coffee, and you now have two coffees for the price of one. This is what my cheap friend does when his wife brings him there.
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All these hacks go away when everybody does it. If it makes TikTok. It's already too late.
 
GON said:
One has to look at this on a MACRO basis. Of course, on a MICRO basis there are exceptions.

I just read an article Warren Buffet, one of the world's top 25 wealthiest individuals, often eats at McDonald's for breakfast. That statement may be true- but it does not equate to the other 24 world's wealthiest individuals eating breakfast at McDonald's regularly.
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I suppose he can afford the $16.00 hamburger meal!
 
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Number_35 said:
Further to recession spending, 30ish years ago the city brought in a poverty expert from the U.S. to advise our civic government. She made some really interesting points:

- If you're near the bottom of the ladder at work but have potential to progress, have young children, an old car, and a hefty mortgage, etc., you'll likely cut back on drive-through coffee, movies, pay TV, etc., because there's light at the end of the tunnel. You know that putting a bit of extra money against the mortgage now will save you tens of thousands of after-tax dollars down the road. (This described my life at the time.)

- In contrast, the consultant pointed out that she had driven through the poorest parts of the city and had noticed the dilapidated rental houses bristling with satellite dishes. Likewise, a lot of the income of the residents went to cigarettes, fast food, and lottery tickets. This spending bought them comfort, entertainment, and hope.

The latter observation helped me to be less judgemental.
Click to expand...

Here in the USA if a person refuses to work the government will roll out the red carpet and they are taken cared of from cradle to grave.
 
Life has never been better in the USA as far as disposable income and a living wage.

As far as shopping, the economy is on fire!
At least here at the Carolina coast, past weekend took my wife to get good sunglasses for her birthday at Tanger Outlets.
I’m not kidding what I about to say.
For those that don’t know, the outlets are higher end stores of name brand merchants.

It’s also the ideal place to shop for sunglasses because of multiple stores selling name brands like Maui Jim ( my favorite) Ray Ban (wife’s favorite) I’m also talking a large selection of the ultra thin glass sunglasses not plastic sunglasses

We arrived near the outlets, streams of cars parked outside the outlets that we thought maybe a wedding reception was going on in a nearby place. NOPE we drove through the parking lots at the outlets, never saw anything like this, one must also know these are well landscaped parking lots, grass, palm trees etc
Cars and SUVs squeezed into and in every green space they could because all parking spaces were full. Constant flow of cars in and out. If there was a green patch of grass someplace a car was up on it, even over some pretty large curbs! LOL
Oh, heck, some people were parked halfway up the curbs! LOL

Besides what I said above at all times of year you really need to go to restaurants early or have a reservation because if you walk into one of hundreds of restaurants around here let’s say 6 o’clock you better forget about it if you don’t wanna wait an hour and a half

The only place people in this country are struggling more than historical norms is in the media

Retail sales reports coming in from the weekend were above expectations
 
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alarmguy said:
Life has never been better in the USA as far as disposable income and a living wage.

As far as shopping, the economy is on fire!
At least here at the Carolina coast, past weekend took my wife to get good sunglasses for her birthday at Tanger Outlets.
I’m not kidding what I about to say.
For those that don’t know, the outlets are higher and stores of namebrand merchandise.
It’s also the ideal place to shop for sunglasses because of multiple stores selling name brands like Maui Jim ( my favorite) Ray Ban (wife’s favorite) I’m also talking a large selection of the ultra thin glass sunglasses not plastic sunglasses

We arrived near the outlets, streams of cars parked outside the outlets that we thought maybe a wedding reception was going on in a nearby place. NOPE we drove through the parking lots at the outlets, never saw anything like this, one must also know these are well landscaped parking lots, grass, palm trees etc
Cars and SUVs squeezed into and in every green space they could because all parking spaces were full. Constant flow of cars in and out.
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One comment on the video stated: "I grew up in Portland. To me this video is basically the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of the Apes…"

One of the remaining sellers in the mall does have some sunglasses left for sale I saw. :)
 
ripcord said:


One comment on the video stated: "I grew up in Portland. To me this video is basically the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of the Apes…"

This mall does have some sunglasses left for sale :)
Click to expand...

Perfect example of my reference of the media making people feel like times are tough.

Yet the consumer is spending freely and without concern.
 
ripcord said:
This isn't from the media. Just some random person who walks around making videos in urban areas.
Click to expand...
Maybe worse? Looking for followers ?
Got me but the OP post and my post is just as valid and backed up by factual economic data
IMG_6140.webp
 
wings&wheels said:
Had a friend who worked for a major bank since we graduated college until not that long ago. Their main office overlooked a rail yard. Aside from the analysts reports, he would judge the economy by simply how full the rail yard was and the mix of rolling stock, and it was a surprisingly good indicator.
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I posted on something similar to this. The 2009 recession could have been predicted by counting empty flat cars parked on rail sidings along the Missouri River in North Dakota.
 
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When I was young, single and employed, I likely spent way too much money at the bar.

When I go into a starbucks I see mostly young people. I think it might be the equivalent. They hang out at starbucks. My generation did at the bar. This logically makes sense to me - they prefer the coffee shop to the bar.

What I really don't understand is the drive through. That makes no sense. Wait in line to get coffee to go? Just pour it in a thermos at home.
 
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