Consumer spending in free fall: empty stores and 1970s nostalgia
Five customers and one cashier in a big-box store at six in the afternoon. Is it a sign of collapsing consumer spending or simply a matter of timing?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Consumer spending in free fall: empty stores and 1970s nostalgia
A witness describes a big-box electronics store at six in the afternoon: five customers and one cashier. The atmosphere, according to their account, is «Mad Max-like». The anecdote is not an isolated one: other shops in the area – including the Miró chain – show the same desolation. Is it a symptom of collapsing domestic consumption or simply a bad time to go shopping?
Those who have been tracking consumer spending for years argue that the decline is not temporary: they point to several quarters of anemic levels. The explanation, they say, lies not in saving but in the real difficulty of buying goods that used to sell without a problem. The memory of the late 1970s – bread with oil and sugar – resurfaces as a warning of what could happen again.
But not everything is doom and gloom. Some point out that an empty electronics store on a Wednesday at six in the afternoon is perfectly normal. And that on weekends at eight, the same stores are packed. Technology, moreover, has become so cheap that a plasma TV is no longer a symbol of wealth but of poverty, according to some analyses. The debate, in any case, splits between those who see an imminent crash and those who believe it is the same old noise.
With domestic consumption at questionable levels, the pattern suggesting a generational divide – those who knew scarcity vs. those who did not – adds a source of social tension that few dare to quantify. Are we witnessing the end of the consumption party, or just a bump in the road that the market will correct on its own?
Related discussions in the forum
A witness describes a big-box electronics store at six in the afternoon: five customers and one cashier. The atmosphere, according to their account, is «Mad Max-like». The anecdote is not an isolated one: other shops in the area – including the Miró chain – show the same desolation. Is it a symptom of collapsing domestic consumption or simply a bad time to go shopping?
Those who have been tracking consumer spending for years argue that the decline is not temporary: they point to several quarters of anemic levels. The explanation, they say, lies not in saving but in the real difficulty of buying goods that used to sell without a problem. The memory of the late 1970s – bread with oil and sugar – resurfaces as a warning of what could happen again.
But not everything is doom and gloom. Some point out that an empty electronics store on a Wednesday at six in the afternoon is perfectly normal. And that on weekends at eight, the same stores are packed. Technology, moreover, has become so cheap that a plasma TV is no longer a symbol of wealth but of poverty, according to some analyses. The debate, in any case, splits between those who see an imminent crash and those who believe it is the same old noise.
With domestic consumption at questionable levels, the pattern suggesting a generational divide – those who knew scarcity vs. those who did not – adds a source of social tension that few dare to quantify. Are we witnessing the end of the consumption party, or just a bump in the road that the market will correct on its own?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (24 replies).
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