The end of an era — of SEVERAL eras.

I had a job I loved when I was in my 20s. A small business that was bought out by a larger competitor and absorbed. Of course, very few of the employees were offered jobs.

That was in 1988. I found a job in a retail chain called “Service Merchandise” — similar to Target. I was hired as the manager of the “Sight and Sound” department. In those days, that meant cameras, videocassette recorders, stereos, and consumer electronics like calculators, watches, etc.

In the year I worked there, I went through one Christmas cycle — and it was absolutely crazy! I’m glad I didn’t work in the toy department because those poor souls were locked in overnight to prepare for the onslaught of Christmas opening.

And things were different then. There was no “Black Friday.” The worst (best?) shopping day of the year — depending upon if you were a worker or a consumer — was Nov. 1.

When the doors opened — people flooded the stores, tore merchandise apart, assaulted each other. It was like Jerry Lewis’s film, “Who’s Minding The Store.”

Christmas brought out the worst in people — not the best. Customers waited in line for sales help.

(YES — there was actually plenty of staff walking the aisles to help customers and answer questions. It’s true — I’m NOT on drugs!)

An example: I’d greet the next customer in line at the counter and his greeting was no “Merry Christmas!” It was “I’ve been waiting here 45 minutes!”

Yes, people were poor planners even back then.

I spent at least 15 minutes demonstrating the features of a 35mm camera (a very weird type — it actually had FILM. There were no digital cameras — at least not affordable ones).

After all that time I made my sales close: “Would you like to pay cash or put it on your credit card?”

The customer gave the reply I heard all too often, “Oh, I’m not buying it here. I can get it cheaper at Best Buy, but they don’t have any clerks to answer questions.”

Best Buy was the NEW player in town and they were unique — self-service rather than helpful clerks. Of course, customers weren’t used to them. The public complained that they could get nobody to help them — but they still wanted the cheapest price.

I always remember that horrible Christmas — and the ramifications of cheap prices and self-service.

So we see the escalation this year. And the greeting has become:

Merry Christmas! You are laid off!

https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-bankruptcy-list-sears-blockbuster-borders-2019-12

Some of my friends who are bullish on the economy keep posting things about how great this year has been.  However, this is the time of year when we see/hear about businesses closing or going bankrupt.

That’s the post Christmas blow-out.  Most businesses make at least a third of their annual income around Christmas (4th quarter).

Sure — the stock market has been going up and setting records … but what does that mean?

“The Stock Market” usually means the Dow-Jones Average.  That is a list of 30 industrial businesses — and is not really relevant in today’s world.

After WWII, American had lots of auto factories and manufactured steel, and then the electronics boom started — and we had a lot of production before we shipped it all overseas to chase cheap labor.

Now the economy is good — for certain people.  If you own a business in Fortune 500, and/or a lot of blue chip stocks, you are probably getting pretty good dividends and earnings.

If you work for those companies, their wages have not kept up with the profits the company is pocketing.  In fact, in many cases, they don’t keep up with inflation.

Here’s the real pulse of the economy:

“If you keep noticing more going-out-of-business sales, there’s a startling reason: Forever 21, Walgreens, Dressbarn, GameStop, Gap and other chains have announced nearly 9,000 store closings in 2019 — way more than we saw during all of 2018.”

https://moneywise.com/a/retailers-closing-stores-in-2019

Meanwhile the Federal Reserve keeps pumping money into the economy to keep the numbers up.

Report in September:  “By pumping more dollars into the cash-strapped lending market, the Federal Reserve brought the market money rate back in line with its funds rate. What started as a single act on September 17, 2019, has now snowballed into four straight days of repo agreements to inject more than a quarter of a trillion dollars’ worth of capital into the system.”

Report in November:

The Fed’s monetary juice has tied directly to the rise in stocks

Nov 7, 2019The Federal Reserve has been pumping billions into the financial system after the mid-September tumult in very short-term lending markets known as repo. As the central bank’s balance sheet has …

The reason?  When the economy is good, incumbents are usually re-elected, and 2020 is an election year.

When the economy is bad, the incumbent is usually voted out of office.

This has nothing to do with other factors — like impeachment hearings or personal scandals.  But in the face of those factors, a booming economy could really help out.

So when people are telling about the great economy, they are probably repeating what they want to hear according to their belief system — and not telling you what is actually going on.