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

PandaBear said:
This is how I see it:


It is probably very obvious but let me explain here. There are 3 America, the below upper middle class one who has been struggling since probably the 90s when manufacturing left, and the upper middle class who does pretty well and have the disposable income to lift up the majority of the consumer spending outside of necessities, and then there's the high networth investors who have family offices and husband / wife have to take separate flights due to risk of a plane crash killing an entire organization's majority ownership (ridiculous for us commoners but a real thing for large public corps, like Micron losing its former CEO in a personal plane crash).

The 2 extreme ends are always going to stay where they are due to the nature of economy, the upper middle class have been cutting their spending based on some Walmart and Target spending data I have seen a couple weeks ago.
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I don't see it that way. There will always be frugal wealthy people and extravagant poor people. People living well within their means and people living in debt. There is that guy at work that has a fancy new car and fancy clothes and the guy at work that brings his lunch everyday and drives a hoopti. You know who's got more money in the bank.
 
LDB said:
We don't drink coffee at all. If we did I wouldn't go to Starbucks. They are far too leftist. I've heard Dunkin is better. It just doesn't have the snob appeal. And sadly far too many people require snob appeal from their coffee to validate themselves. Pretty pathetic really.
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My wife only drinks tea and no place makes a proper pot of tea. I drink black coffee, no sugar. I dislike the taste of Starbucks coffee - it tastes burnt to me. But my wife works with kids with disabilities in a puplic school system and here’s the thing, ALL the teachers love Starbucks because of the leftist politics. Parents of the kids like to give teachers Starbucks gift certificates at holiday’s and at the end of the year because it’s easy and the teachers like to receive them. My wife and I politically could not be further from the mainstream public teachers but my wife gets the Starbucks gift cards every year. The classroom kids parents and especially the parents of the special needs kids she works with are VERY generous. A years haul of Starbucks gift cards is always worth over $500. She works in a wealthy public school district.

So as the only coffee drinker in my house the gift cards come my way and I use them to pizz off the Starbucks elite. I’ll order a coffee black, no sugar and I tell them I’ll wait at the register for the coffee. They ask what kind and I say give me the grind that tastes closest to Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. The look is priceless. The people behind me in line can wait. They ask for my name and I say no, there is nothing that needs to be done to it. Just reach back there, fill the cup all the way to the top and hand it over. I’m not waiting 10 -20 minutes for a cup of black coffee. They literally don’t know what to do.
 
Leo99 said:
I don't see it that way. There will always be frugal wealthy people and extravagant poor people. People living well within their means and people living in debt. There is that guy at work that has a fancy new car and fancy clothes and the guy at work that brings his lunch everyday and drives a hoopti. You know who's got more money in the bank.
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Individually in a micro scale you are correct. In a macro scale we will see the monetary and economic policy of a nation to adjust and get a net increase and decrease of various numbers to fit the goal. There will always be a bell curve and in the end the law of large numbers will move and that's what they are after. I will always be frugal but as a society there will always be some movement whenever interest rates and inflation numbers change. Someone will change his or her behaviors.
 
I’ve seen some Starbucks that had a line of 20 cars backed up and blocking the street.

Are idiots that zombified to wait in line with the possibility of getting rear-ended on a busy street.
 
Dave Hess said:
I’ve seen some Starbucks that had a line of 20 cars backed up and blocking the street.

Are idiots that zombified to wait in line with the possibility of getting rear-ended on a busy street.
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I can't imagine waiting in a line like that for any type of fast food.
 
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dishdude said:
I can't imagine waiting in a line like that for any type of fast food.
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Majority of folks in that line catch up on phones. so waiting passes fast….

We have that line locally and where I live there 6 Starbucks in 20 mile radius. They are not as concentrated of course like Dunkin Donuts where I have 6 with 2 mile radius…
 
LDB said:
Drinks are insanely expensive, and that's the teas and sodas. Alcohol is a lot more from what I hear. We don't drink alcohol so I don't know. We drink water and save enough so every fifth meal is effectively free. For $250 we could have one of our favorite takeouts and one favorite dinner out five times. That's for two so 2.5 times equivalent. If we could go back to adding a side-order of mean tweets we could have done 8-9 times on $250. Just gotta love our inflated built better meals.
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Yes, alcohol is extremely expensive when going out. At a restaurant where I am a typical mixed drink is $12-$15 bucks. A beer is around $7. At sporting events a beer is $19 bucks, think about that...one beer is $19 when a 18 pack is $13-$15 at local stores. But even in local stores the price of alcohol has gone up. Bourbon has gone through the rough because it’s hard to make and it’s become so popular. Bottles that used to cost $25 bucks are now selling for $75 plus.

When we go to dinner, usually my wife and I will order two drinks apiece. My daughter will order one, sometimes two. This adds $70-$90 dollars to the bill. Plus extra on a tip.
 
doublebase said:
Yes, alcohol is extremely expensive when going out. At a restaurant where I am a typical mixed drink is $12-$15 bucks. A beer is around $7. At sporting events a beer is $19 bucks, think about that...one beer is $19 when a 18 pack is $13-$15 at local stores. But even in local stores the price of alcohol has gone up. Bourbon has gone through the rough because it’s hard to make and it’s become so popular. Bottles that used to cost $25 bucks are now selling for $75 plus.

When we go to dinner, usually my wife and I will order two drinks apiece. My daughter will order one, sometimes two. This adds $70-$90 dollars to the bill. Plus extra on a tip.
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Wow. I'm so glad we aren't dependent on alcohol to enjoy meals or other activities. Our bank accounts are also glad.
 
Leo99 said:
I don't see it that way. There will always be frugal wealthy people and extravagant poor people. People living well within their means and people living in debt. There is that guy at work that has a fancy new car and fancy clothes and the guy at work that brings his lunch everyday and drives a hoopti. You know who's got more money in the bank.
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True on a individual scale, but our economy is 70% consumer spending. I am the same way, but if enough of the others stop spending we can both eat our sack lunch at home and let our hoopti sit, because we will have no job to drive to.

Not saying its a good thing - its the way it is however.
 
doublebase said:
My friend and I sit there everyday wondering how people are still spending like wild sailors. Because unlike before, they can’t just borrow the money and make those easy payments...not with the interest rates hike. Yet they still do.

And everyone still has to eat and fill up their gas tanks. My weekly grocery bill is pushing $300, plus we might do takeout a night, and we usually go out to dinner once a week....add that and it’s another $250...add the fuel cost and I’m throwing another $100 bucks a week. So, $650 a week just to drive to work and feed the family. And I’m somewhat responsible. What’s really killing me is taking a family of 4 out for dinner every single week - my kids aren’t little anymore - my daughter will order a drink and my son can eat the entire left side of a menu🤣 Hopefully my newly graduated from college daughter will soon find employment and be able to toss a few bucks into this equation.

But we have to heading into a recession, right? This can’t be sustainable.
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Interesting my wife and I went to dinner with a few couples last night they all complaining about economy and price of there health insurance that just got notified it's going up 11%. But we at a nice packed restaurant bill was $900 and all drove home in there $90 k car to there million dollar house. Crying with two loaves of bread under there arm.
 
GON said:
Last Friday I went to put one pound of air in a tire in Castle Pines, CO. What an adventure, seven broken gas station pay air dispensers in a row, but that story is for another day.

After spending 90 minutes trying to put air in a tire in one of the most wealthy counties in the USA, thought to bring home my Wife and Daughter a Starbucks. I was at one of the numerous Castle Rock, Co Starbucks. The Starbucks was not near the outlet mall. The Starbucks was packed, both lobby and drive up.

Ordered three drinks, $19. Took about 30 minutes for the drinks. As I sat waiting for the drinks, I saw the light. People are paying $6 USD now for a Starbucks. Wow..and the place is jammed packed with customers. I had no idea three drinks would cost me $19 at Starbucks.

We know many in the US are struggling to make ends meet. Some.if these have been struggling for decades. But others appear to be doing very well and a lot of them.

When Starbucks sees a fall in US sales, that will be a accurate sign of pain among US citizens that are better off then others. If/when that happens, that will be the sign of a failing economy.
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As long as rich foreigners keep buying American industries, real estate and global shipping and global energy are not snagged long-term by a crisis or three, our economy will not fail.

As we evolve deeper into becoming a Service and Entertainment way-of-life, when American taxpayers can no longer foot-the-bill for such, more foreigners will become citizens and take over that landscape of our economy.

Wall Street will eventually be faced with a Global Financial Reset. Nobody knows today how a future, total cashless society will operate here. Supposed to be ready-to-roll by 2030. First will come a slow introduction in 2025.
 
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Triple_Se7en said:
As long as rich foreigners keep buying American industries, real estate and global shipping and global energy are not snagged long-term by a crisis or three, our economy will not fail.

As we evolve deeper into becoming a Service and Entertainment way-of-life, when American taxpayers can no longer foot-the-bill for such, more foreigners will become citizens and take over that landscape of our economy.

Wall Street will eventually be faced with a Global Financial Reset. Nobody knows today how a future, total cashless society will operate here. Supposed to be ready-to-roll by 2030. First will come a slow introduction in 2025.
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Fascinating, kind of like how Mr. potter was buying all the land and businesses in the movie it's a wonderful life?
 
Many of the people who spend $6 a day at Starbucks would be much wiser to put that $180 a month into a retirement or investment account. That's my barometer reading. Some economy we have. I just paid $6.59 a gallon for freaking K1 kerosene.
 
I learned long ago economic forecasting is about as good as meteorology. Not so good. I was an Econ major in college. The simple basics are sound but everything else was theoretical.

I take it all with a grain of salt.

https://www.ubs.com/us/en/wealth-ma...62Kpzsqg29XlZWT1uiUE02PPeeQYAjlhfp2WCZB2pXjZI

The only thing I like from Starbucks were their lattes, but I can make better at home. All of their drinks have far too much sugar.
 
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