Amazed at the businesses shutting down here in Texas....

[TwixVoy]

I live in a major city in Texas and other than a massive sales maturity decline at Target (because I worked there and could check the numbers) I really haven't seen too many businesses appear to have trouble here. (we did have Bennigans go under a few months ago though) Texas seems to have been relatively insulated compared to other states.

However, I have recently noticed some grocery store locations shutting down such as Fiesta. Some Olive Gardens have shut down. LOTS of little small stores/businesses in little strip centers have shut down.

This is all in the past 3 months or so. What I find interesting is that many of these places were near very busy areas such as interstates or major shopping malls. They always had people in them.

It seems that like Target even though tons of people may be in these places they are not spending/buying nearly as much as they used to.

Has anyone else noticed more businesses shutting down in the past few months where they live?

[kestrel91316]

1. Well I have noticed this for a while. But the BIG shocker for me was

yesterday afternoon when I went down to LAX to meet up with my niece who was flying to OZ.

Friday afternoon/evening, summertime, school is out........and the place was so relatively empty it was scary. For comparison purposes, I was there LAST July on a Friday afternoon and it was a horrific scene, as crowded as any Christmastime.

Nobody has money for travel, it appears.

[undeterred]

2. Apparently governors still have money for travel.

:hide:

[kestrel91316]

10. Tell me about it. When my niece was working last summer at a language camp

in Costa Rica, one of the kids was Schwarzedollar's son. And another was another of Teddy Kennedy's Kennedy grand-nieces. To their credit, they were both good kids. HE was a typical teen, but not bad.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Just not their own. nt

[petersjo02]

3. Bennigans in Iowa City/Coralville

closed down, too, several months ago, but last time I drove by there, it appeared to be open again. I suspect it was a problem with the chain itself, rather than the economy.

[tammywammy]

7. It was

That chain had been having problems for over a year before they shut them all down.

[Tikki]

4. Tourism means a lot to our economy ....

If you can't draw them in with this economy, it's a tough road ahead...

Tikki

[walkaway]

5. I thought that the real estate bubble didn't really happen...

in Texas so that when it burst, Texas homeowners didn't get hit. That must have helped to keep the wolves from the states door until everything else fell apart. Let's hope the economy revs up before you feel the pinch!

[AlinPA]

6. Small town in W. PA: my wife and I walked downtown today (our Saturday routine to

have a coffee and to do a few errands) and the number of "For Rent", "For Sale", "Going out of Business", etc. is increasing. We used to blame it on the WalMart or the Mall on the edge of town. But this is getting worse.

[tammywammy]

8. I haven't noticed that at all

I do a lot of shopping at Fiesta and every time I head there it's packed. Even the strip malls I drive by recently, none of them have had a lot of closings, maybe one or two, but not a lot.

But then again, in my town there's a huge shopping development that opened within the last couple of years and it seems that every week or so another new restaurant is opening up.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. Some businesses have closed in my area,

but there's new construction going on in other places nearby. Some of that new construction is halted for now, though. The last figures I saw said that our unemployment rate is 9.6%, which is a lot higher than what we're used to.

[undeterred]

11. Thrift stores have replaced a couple of pricier stores

and the parking lots are packed.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

12. There are strip malls crashing all over Dallas.

There's one brand new mall off of 75 in Plano that has one business active in it- all the rest of the space is vacant. Apparently some investors were trying to liven up the area- lots of new buildings went up in a short time just before the bust. I'd bet they lost their shirts in the venture.

[bevoette]

13. i am also in major Texas city, and honestly...

most Austin places have been packed. we have been surprised. of course, as you say, that doesn't necessarily mean people are spending as much...but there's definitely been crowds. haven't been to a mall recently, though...but at least in our areas, businesses seem to be holding strong.

lots of construction still going on, too.

i have been reading, though, that it is taking longer/more effort for them to rent/sell the glut of high-rise, high-priced condos they've built downtown. real estate market has definitely cooled, i think, but i can't believe the insane prices they are asking for those units anyway! :wow:

it's weird - we're central, and some houses are snatched up within a couple of weeks (one didn't even take ONE week!)...and others have sat on the market several months...the prices are all pretty steady, i suspect time on market is more related to how much renovation the seller is willing to do or has done before putting the home on the market, but i'm not positive :shrug: i'm just glad our neighborhood seems okay - not too many homes on the market, but lots of renovations and home improvements still under way (including us).


i dunno...i literally spent most of the last 18 months or so terrified, waiting for the FIRST shoe to drop, not to mention the second...i know it's happening, even in Texas. then, a few months ago, it finally clicked that i was the 'consumer confidence' problem.

i think living centrally in a city that has the trifecta of recession-proof measures - university, technology, and government - has kept us relatively insulated. sometimes, you realize why it's worth the price :)

my heart breaks for other parts of the country. i know we are very, very lucky - i am grateful for it every day.

[bertman]

14. North Carolina here. Lots of building supply houses biting the dust. A contractor

friend says he knows lots of subcontractors who are now on foodstamps.

Our company's attorney told me the other day that he was very busy. When I said, "hey that's great", his response was that it really wasn't so great because he's busy helping small businesses do their going-out-of-business legal work.

We used to be a booming new house market but that is almost at a standstill now. Even remodeling is WAY off from the last two years.

The state has cut workers' pay at all levels, as well as raising the employees' contributions for benefits.

[SmileyRose]

15. price point price point price point price point - IT'S ALL ABOUT PRICE POINT

job loss, pay cut, credit cards cut off, interest rates jacked up, all insurance costing a boatload more, America has less money it's pocket period - and buying power has been going down for most of America for decades.

Most of America functioned with bartering and secondary market for most of MY life - it's only recently, since Reagan, that every damn thing had to be brand spankin new and local food production land was bought and turned into yet another strip mall.

I say we go back to the way it was, bulldoze the fucking strip malls and plant apple trees and local gardens. Though I fully appreciate the fact that process will cause untold hardship on the vast majority of Americans.

[musette_sf]

16. + 1

[bedazzled]

17. central florida palm beach county - stores going out of business all over

the burger king in the shopping center where i work is
going out of business. i have never seen a burger king
go out of business!

fudruckers, linens 'n things and circuit city all built
new stores a few years ago, which are now empty. mom
and pop stores are all going under at an alarming rate.
hole strip malls are empty.

they have a special department to handle the home
foreclosures in our town. horrific.

it's truly scary.

[jmowreader]

20. I've seen quite a few Burger Kings go under

In Fayetteville they closed several of them on one day, and it was very easy to tell which ones were targeted for elimination: painting companies were hired to paint some of the restaurants' roofs blue. The ones that didn't receive paint were closed.

If you REALLY want to see a fog-shrouded wasteland, go to Dillon, SC. There's nothing there anymore.

[timeforpeace]

18. It does seem to be getting worse, not better.