The Consumer is Alive and Well

The consumer in America as group makes up for about 70% of the economic output when it is all measured. It can be said that the economy goes the way the consumer goes. I have never been a big fan of the infamous “Black Friday” shopping event as the thought of “saving by spending” was never a lesson in my Personal Finance classes back in the day. However, I have often participated during the day to get in on some items that I otherwise would not have purchased; mostly electronics and gizmos. This year, the family was on vacation near Disney so we mixed up our visits with some shopping.

It was probably not the greatest idea as the traffic alone was awful as it took us no time to figure out we would not find a parking but we got stuck in traffic inside the mall. It took us 40 minutes just to leave and get back to the hotel so that we could get on an Uber instead. Luckily, it was only a 10 minute drive! It proved to be cheaper as well since the Uber ride was less expensive that a reserved parking spot or a Valet parking service even though none were available as an option given the mass amount of people shopping at the mall.

I had gotten used to being on line all week as the Amusement parks were also full so a 45 minute to an hour wait time on a line was normal this past week. However, it was the first time in my life that I had to get on line to get into a store just to look around. The only similar experience I recall was getting on line early for a new iPhone years ago. There were a number of stores we stood online for a couple of minutes and didn’t even find anything to purchase! I was able to convince the family to not even get on some of the lines as we knew that we would just look at the items and not buy them in some of the higher luxury items we walked by.

There was one store that the family picked out a couple of items to buy and I immediately saw the long line to pay as well. I told them I would start the line while they finished shopping. Half hour later I was not half way through when they handed me two bags of goods; some for us and some for some Holiday gifts for family and friends. I spent over an hour on that line and thought it would not be a problem as I planned to get on my phone for some matches of Splinterlands or to browse my Steem feed. Unfortunately, the mobile phone reception was horrible and it turned to a boring hour waiting to spend money!

As an investor, I have learned that the economy is the best indicator and predictor of future returns. Seeing the consumer in action this past week confirms my thoughts regarding the state of the economy as the consumers are not stopping to spend these days. While most consumers are still in tough positions, employment remains strong and credit is readily available for use so I see no reason why the economy will not continue strong in the short term. Problems probably loom longer term but riding the wave is not a bad idea as the “trend is your friend.” At least I was able to get a great shirt of a whale as my hopes of crypto independence remain!