Friday was Dec. 14. Since just about everybody in town gets paid twice a month, or every other week, it was payday for almost everybody. Not only that, for the majority of people, it was the last payday before Christmas.
I went to the mall to get the last of my Christmas shopping done. I'd been dreading it, because this time of year the mall is usually packed and it's a pain. There have been years when the mall was so crowded that it took forever to get out of the parking lot (there's only 2 exits, and a light)
This was Friday night, which is usually pretty crowded anyway. The only movie theater in town is in the mall.
It was no more crowded than any other weeknight. Way LESS crowded than I've seen it in the summer. No problems parking. No lines to check out.
It was, in a word, weird, and VERY unusual. Target wasn't crowded either.
First, as short description of Dover DE, where I live.
This is a military town. It's also the state capital. We have 2 small colleges and satellite campuses for 2 others. Therefore, a large chunk of the population is employed by govt - federal, state, local (schools). We also have a food processing plant that's been here for years. We have a NASCAR/harness racing track that has a slots casino and hotel (and it's getting bigger every year). We also have a mall. (It's a relatively crappy mall, but it's all we've got.) We have no sales tax here, so malls in this state attract people from the surrounding area who have sales tax. I've lived here over 20 yrs.
Friday was Dec. 14. Since just about everybody in town gets paid twice a month, or every other week, it was payday for almost everybody. Not only that, for the majority of people, it was the last payday before Christmas.
I went to the mall to get the last of my Christmas shopping done. I'd been dreading it, because this time of year the mall is usually packed and it's a pain. There have been years when the mall was so crowded that it took forever to get out of the parking lot (there's only 2 exits, and a light)
This was Friday night, which is usually pretty crowded anyway. The only movie theater in town is in the mall.
It was no more crowded than any other weeknight. Way LESS crowded than I've seen it in the summer. No problems parking. No lines to check out.
It was, in a word, weird, and VERY unusual. Target wasn't crowded either.
It's not like there are tons of other places to shop - there aren't. There's a much better mall north of us, but it's an hour drive. There's one almost 2 hrs south of us, but it's in Maryland and there's sales tax there.
So where are people shopping? ARE they shopping? The people are still here - I see their cars on the road at rush hour (our rush hour isn't bad, but you can still see an increase in traffic). I see them in the grocery stores (which are as crowded as always). Are they shopping online? Perhaps. I have done that for some things, but certainly not all.
I'll admit that our mall is pretty bad. We have the same stores as everybody else, but it's decidely skewed to the 15-24 yr old set - we have 2 stores devoted to electronic games, 3 sport shoe/stuff stores, Old Navy, 3 or 4 other teen clothing stores (maybe more), 3 or 4 jewelers, 4 dept stores (Penney's, Sears, Boscov's, Macy's). We don't have ANYTHING remotely upscale - no Pottery Barn, no Gap, no Limited, nothing that would appeal to the more discriminating buyer. For that, you need to drive up north to the Christiana Mall. But still, you'd think people would be getting at least SOME stuff locally.
I REALLY want to see sales numbers for this season. I don't think they're going to be very good.
And if people aren't spending money at Christmas, things are really going to spiral downward next year.
So how's things in your neck of the woods? Are the malls/stores crowded? Empty? About the same as usual?