Secrets of the City

I’m prepared to eat my cat if need be.

I have been washing and re-using baggies for years. It is such a dreary task, but I bring lunch to work a lot, so it is worth it. I also flatten and re-use foil.  I feel like someone’s grampa from the Depression when I do stuff like this.

More recently, I’ve started paying my teenaged nieces and nephew to clean my house and do yardwork. For teenagers, I pay them really well (according to their parents), but still very cheap to me. I’m helping the economy by giving teenagers more money to spend.

Jane- do your nieces and nephews want to come to my house and pick up dog poop?

I’ve started shopping at Rainbow and we are eating out less and actually eating our leftovers more.

And drinking heavily.

I save newspapers…not sure why, but they’ll come in handy when I have to stuff them in my clothes to keep warm.

I bought Twins season tickets and I am making a nice red snapper fillet for dinner. I try to turn off the lights when I leave for work.

Hell yes were headed towards a recession and with big exposure in this state to retail (target,bestbuy,supervalu etc) we are in for a sh*tstorm.

I’ve cut back on going out to eat and substitute coffee for lattes. Our family is know drawing names for gifts this holiday season.

This is going to be much worse yet, when credit lines are reigned in and minimum payments increased to get cyclical under control…the consumer driven economy will really slow down.

sorry “cyclical debt” I was refering to.

With very little in the way of actual goods made in the U.S., this recession will last for a while longer than usual because we have no real physical worth left in this country. I came to this realization as I set up my lead-laden Christmas tree yesterday and decorated it with ornaments made in China after which I sat down and watched my TV made in Malaysia.

I would think Supervalu would hold up pretty well, given that they’re primarily food stuffs. Their biggest concern is probably more the debt they took on buying out Albertson’s.

nah…they are gonna get housed by krogers and safeway due to their lack of well packaged/marketed single serving prepared foods. Boomers want prepared food that is packaged for empty nesters.

Target is going to get squeezed between traditional dept stores (macy, jcpenney) and discounters (walmart/kmart)

Bestbuy just might squeak by if they can sell enough low priced OEM electronics…they have to fight off a strong competitor in Costco, which eats into both margins and the lucrative extended warranty business (costco TV purchases come standard with two year warranties)

Its gonna be a tough row to hoe for these retailers.

Never mind the fact that retailers have had to turn to sales to drive revenue/sales which is always a nasty trade-off. Once you sell something for less, good luck ever charging your customer the original price.

Except Supervalu doesn’t appear to have a lot of competition in a lot of their markets from either Kroger’s or Safeway.

And I have the same problem with Costco that I have with Sam’s Club: Buy a membership so I can buy 20 times the amount of stuff than I need.

I think that there will still be a market for Best Buy to fill. Not everyone wants to spend a week trying to figure out how to set up and properly adjust their new flatscreen TV.

Thing are pretty tough at Minnesota’s nonprofits — my friends at other nonprofs tell me the same. Layoffs. Cutbacks. We have half the staff we did two years ago.

Feel lucky to have a job at all these days. My reaction: donate more to charity than I ever have before.

There, but for the grace of God…

I’ve been making a point of eating out at my very favorite restaurants. I want to help keep them in business!!

I leave lights on when I will be gone in the evening to foil the robbers I’m sure are casing my house. So far this method has worked great.

bob, I heard something on the radio that donations to non-profits that help the needy generally don’t change in bad economic times. Of course, that probably doesn’t help arts, health, news, or science organizations.

Yes. Some nonprofits rise as others fall — the Red Cross gets huge donations after natural and man-made disasters (Katrina, 9-11, etc.) while others (Cancer Society, Lung Association) suffer.

Right now those charities that directly help the poor, the homeless, food shelves, etc may be doing better than we are — I’m not sure.

So… anyone care to speculate why people are spending less on frills, like, um, pacemakers?

A lot of unemployed people don’t have health insurance, so they skip the physical where the need for a pacemaker might be diagnosed.

Or they may simply reject the Doctor’s recommendation that they get one if they’re worried about out of pocket expenses.

I rest my case.

One of these things is not like the other…..

fixed width…come on guys what is this 1998?

Or it could just be that Medtronic’s losing market share. There are other companies that make pacemakers, you know (including St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific, which are either headquartered or have major divisions in Minnesota). You’d have to look at the sales numbers industry wide before proclaiming the economy is preventing people from getting pacemakers.

It is an across the board slowdown in medical technology I would assume. I am guessing that GE/Siemens/Philips are seeing a slowdown in big magnets too.

People are asking does bigger/newer = better

MedTech companies are under increasing scrutiny to justify their new technology and their promotional tactics. Gone are the days of doctors getting a free trip to Palm Beach or Las Vegas to “consult”

@ryanl: WTF about “fixed width?” One of my monitors is set to 1920×1200. I don’t want no stinkin’ 1920-pixel wide content on my screen when I have my browser opened full-bore; Jakob Nielsen be damned.

I generally run my browser window about 1468 X 765 not quite as big as yours but to me it feels just about right.

Medtronic, BSC (guidant), and St. Jude have experienced slower growth for pacemakers for years for a variety of reasons – not all centered around the economy – remember the government pays for most of those pacemakers. More than a few people have already forgotten Guidant’s -um- mishaps I see…

For the most part we have really well run local companies so sorry if I don’t buy into ryanl’s doomsday scenarios. Best Buy and Target will be just fine…

 and substitute coffee for lattes.

Oh, how awful.

I pay attention to what I call the Cost Per Meal Index, or the CPMI.  A 12-inch Subway sub that costs $5.50, I can eat for two meals, so that’s a CPMI of $2.50.  Tonight I had 1/2 rotiseree chicken breast, 1/2 onion, 1 pepper, cheese and tortilla shells, for a completely satisfying meal costing about $4.  All together, today including breakfast I spent less than $10 feeding myself, and that’s about average.  That’s what I do.  Actually, I just wanted to show off that I cooked something and it tasted good.

Your meal sounds tasty, Kevin. (Of course we are all wondering how this will affect your digestive system…)

How you know its a recession: it’s Sunday thru Saturday, I ain’t got a job yet I have a car. Also, I don’t have shit to do.
And I’m on MNSpeak again.
Recession, FTW, motherfuckas!

Kwatt you and I keep similar metrics, mine is known as the CPB or cost per buzz.

I keep the receipts of my sinful purchases then evaluate the respective buzz yield on a sliding scale that starts at Peter O’Toule and runs all the way up to Robin Williams circa MorknMindy.

This economy is killing my spread…with my scotch and belgian beer consumption way down the chart is off its kilter.

That’s funny, cause I stopped rinking whine b/c it was $20/month I decided wasn’t worth spending. D8mn recession.

cause I stopped rinking whine

Well you sure type like you are dronk.

Yay, Bixby’s here!!!!!

Does Peter O’Toule drink O’Doole?

I are not a drnk typer. Hey, you have purty eyes.

Since so many friends are facing unemployment now I’ve decided to strengthen my LinkedIn network. Maybe my contacts can help them now, and who knows? As another nonprofit worker, I might need that much more help down the road.

I heard a black woman say what I was thinking (I’m an over 60 white single woman):

“WHAT RECESSION? NOTHING’S CHANGED FOR ME OVER THE PAST FOUR YEARS.”

I believe “the vulnerable” in our society have been largely overlooked and discounted. Yet we are the proverbial cannaries in the cage. Look for rising unemployment and underemployment in minorities and older workers that precurse what you younger prised workers had a while back.

OK, THAT’s my beef, actually I believe backed by the facts if you do your homework.

Positive thoughts are available.
Do not conform to the worries of what we spirtual folks call “the world.” Faith in God, yourself, and others moves mountains.

Visualize what you CAN do.
I see many of you doing that here.
Take action and don’t worry.
If you read your Depression history some of our biggest corporations kept going strong, advertising on national radio, to sell convenience foods, candy, ok the bad ciggies, and so on.

We indeed can get what McCain got crticised for saying, “Mental recession.”

The times they are a changing. We have been seeing a deconstruction of the world as it was.

Let us renew ourselves and look to this day and to the future. And let us learn from the lessons of history…this too shall pass.

PENNY SAVINGS:

Save pocket change for gas-station coffee.

Use cold water.

Turn thermostat as low as possible (50 ish) at night and curl up with a snuggle buddy.

Wear hats inside.

Wash hands and eat high vitamin C to avoid doctor’s visits.

Rest well to keep immune system healthy.

Love somebody, pray for somebody, blow yourself a kiss in the mirror–live, love, laugh and be happy!

Take care,

Leda

Will Obama provide a snuggle buddy, because that would be a thousand times better than another check from the government…

“Will Obama provide a snuggle buddy, ‘

I think he promised that.

Sweet, I hope I get a tall one…

I once heard a 20-something black woman says, “clear comment, what clear clear comment? Nothing made sense in that entire comment!”

That said, Obama will have failed as a leader for the people unless he brings back goverment cheese as part of his economic recovery plan.

I’ll trade my cheese for a government cuddle buddy…

Be careful for what you wish for.

Do you know how big a block of government cheese is? You can cuddle with it while you’re not cooking grilled cheese sandwiches with it. And you can clobber anyone who breaks into your home.

If that’s not social security, I don’t know what is.

The correct term is gubment cheese. And it is surprisingly large, that gubment cheese.

I’m elitist, so it’s government cheese.

Goverment cheese is also surprisingly sturdy. If my home was destroyed by a hurricane, I’d like a FEMA trailor made of goverment cheese. I’d have food and shelter.