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

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.
I live near something called the Clarksburg Premium Outlets in Maryland. (Note “outlets“ are no longer what they were in the beginning, selling old stock and slightly imperfect items at reduced prices) Don’t go often but it’s always got plenty of people and on Black Friday the cars were lined up out onto the highway, it was insane. Had to redirect to another exit to get around it.

I get there are economically depressed areas. This isn’t one of them.

jeff
 
I live near something called the Clarksburg Premium Outlets in Maryland. (Note “outlets“ are no longer what they were in the beginning, selling old stock and slightly imperfect items at reduced prices) Don’t go often but it’s always got plenty of people and on Black Friday the cars were lined up out onto the highway, it was insane. Had to redirect to another exit to get around it.

I get there are economically depressed areas. This isn’t one of them.

jeff
Yes, the real outlet stores, back in the day, were great. Now they are nothing but another store just with the word outlet somewhere in the name.
 
Starbucks stock is overvalued. You can watch it, and it may follow some cycle or another, but what will you do with that? It's no real reflection on the economy, fake numbers and useless slacker homeless clowns infesting cities with zero will to crack down on crime.

And there is no one stock that is anything proof. WMT? TGT? Pffft

Starbucks, everyone BITOG hip is just going to criticize the coffee - wow I am shocked I tell you! - Hey another starbucks is charbux thread, and maybe deservedly so, but how the heck does the BITOG cognoti opinion weigh overall on Starbuck's customer thoughts and Starbuck's revenue?

My wife buys a chai latte. I like their Italian roast beans, if I know an outlet has high enough turnover to have fresh beans. So?

The heck, we did get 5 pages pronto. That's pretty cool. Way to go @GON
 
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.
Same thing could be said for bringing lunch with you. (FTR I bring both lunch and a thermos of coffee to work, too much of a snob to drink the free coffee.)
 
I haven't researched and may be wrong, but I strongly suspect Starbuck's doesn't search for new locations that are high in SSI only income residents. I have been wrong before........ but my gut tells me that is not Starbuck's center of gravity for customers or locations.
They leave the lower income areas doe Dunkin Doughnuts.
 
Fun fact, there are 2 Starbucks in the Tropicana Atlantic City. One in the Quarter, and another near the boardwalk. I'm also guessing that it's not the only place with 2 Starbucks.
 
Fun fact, there are 2 Starbucks in the Tropicana Atlantic City. One in the Quarter, and another near the boardwalk. I'm also guessing that it's not the only place with 2 Starbucks.
I was thinking you would be researching salt water taffy shops in Atlantic City instead of Starbucks.....
 
I was thinking you would be researching salt water taffy shops in Atlantic City instead of Starbucks.....
Actually researching the adult only pools off season... I don't drink coffee, but the GF does and on rare occasions like when we are on vacation she will get a Starbucks.
 
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I don't think I would watch the stock as much as listen to the quarterly report where they discuss forecasting.

So that way I would get the upcoming "predictions" for sales and volume.
 
Fun fact, there are 2 Starbucks in the Tropicana Atlantic City. One in the Quarter, and another near the boardwalk. I'm also guessing that it's not the only place with 2 Starbucks.
Golden Nugget in Vegas also has two
 
The bellwether stock for the American economy is Walmart. All income brackets shop there and it's overwhelmingly an American company.

Starbucks is surprisingly international at this point..
Upper income avoid Walmart here. Target is packed while Walmart is steady at best. Been to other areas and Walmart is definitely busier but areas not as expensive as here.
 
Yes, at least in my area. The majority of local trains carry coal to a coal-fired power plant in my state. Mots of those trains are now about two-and-a-half miles long. The beginning of the trains has 3-4 locomotives. They now put 3-4 locomotives in the MIDDLE of the train and then a couple in the rear. They had to put locomotives in the middle because the trains are now so long that they were snapping couplings.
Waiting for the crossing arms to go up isn't a lot of fun.
If you see a coal train with distributive power set up like that in the Kansas area then its simply 2 coal trains put together, doesn't have anything to do with breaking knuckles perse. On subdivisions with more mountainous grades they will run coal trains 4x4x2 etc but they are actually quite small and well under 100 cars. Middle DP has been around for a long time (long before they started doubling up trains and making them ludicrously long)
 
This stock market has been going sideways for almost 4 years now. I’m not sure if I like it or not but I’m getting used to it so won’t mind if it stays this way.
Pretty much everything is a rotation and reasonable money to be made speculating on categories or just safety of solid companies.

My biggest wonder is, are we building a strong base or will we be a sideways “Japan” scenario for one to two decades.
I only wonder the sideways thing because of the unprecedented amount of national debt that still is unrestrained
 
For recession watchers, this just came in on the Canadian media. The Canadian economy shrunk in the third quarter. This is blamed mostly on reduced exports to the USA. It’s a canary in the mineshaft like empty flatcars in North Dakota.

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