Spending and Saving
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Valentine’s Day ’09: Year of the Dog?
This Valentine’s Day, dogs are getting plenty of love. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $367 million on their pets. That’s a lot of cat toys and doggy treats.
The holiday may not be a box of chocolates for us humans. But Fido? Doing okay this year.
Signs of the Recession: Retail Propportunity
This is clever: Empty retail space at West 13th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan was Cosi until sometime last summer, became a pop-up store for Ricky’s at Halloween time, and now, while awaiting interested new tenants, its empty windows are used as billboard space.
Screwed: 20,000 at Nissan
A daily review of the employment fallout around the country.
Nissan to pinkslip 20,000…Razorfish shaves off 70 employees…The University of Chicago Medical Center may shed hundreds of workers…
Recession Briefing 2.9
What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.
Bull Market for Feng Shui Masters (WSJ)
Praise to the King Money Frog in the Year of the Ox. Feng shui masters are finding a receptive audience for financial matters after a year of massive losses for banks. In Hong Kong, seeking tips from practitioners of Chinese cosmetology is widely accepted.
What recession? Grammy red carpet sparkles (Newsday)
The recession means belt-tightening for many, but few in the music industry are having to hock their sequins or gold grillz. Not yet, anyway, if the red carpet arrivals at last night’s Grammy Awards are any indication.
Recession Concessions: HBO vs. The Cleaning Lady
Sara Clemence, 34
New York City
Editor, Recessionwire Co-founder
Keeping: My cleaning lady ($75 every two weeks)
Ditching: HBO ($15 a month)
Downturn Deals: Sacco Shoes
We wander past signs like this all day long. Some of them are more surprising than others. This one definitely caught our eye and, we must admit, caused a wee bit of secret delight.
What is the deal? Shoes and boots are 50 percent off prices well below normal levels.
Read more…
Recession Concessions: Dog Food v. Daycare
Ditching: Daycare
Keeping: Gourmet dog food
Few are immune to the necessary cutbacks that come with shrinking assets. Even dogs.
Be Nice to Rich People
Paul Krugman blogged about the “paradox of thrift” for the New York Times this morning. Basically, people are cutting spending, which negatively affects the economy, which results in more job losses, which causes people to pull back on spending, and so on…
Funnily enough, yesterday a friend who has a designer retail business was lamenting the trend of lambasting the rich for shopping.
Traveling Tight: Don’t Get Fleeced by Currency Conversion Fees
Money’s tight. So every penny counts when you’re on the road…
Psst. You may be incurring up to 3% in currency-conversion fees when you travel abroad every time you use your credit card. In recent years, banks have started piling fees right on top of the standard 1% fee that Visa and MasterCard charge for foreign purchases. Why? Because they think you’re too jet-lagged to notice.
5 Bubbles Waiting to Pop (Including My Apartment)
Welcome to the Bubblesphere, ’09. Remember the signs? Irrational exuberance. Excessive risk-taking. You’d think we’d learn our lesson, but it’s tricky to see a bubble until it pops. Nobody has a crystal ball, but there are indications that these five potential bubbles may soon deflate in dramatic fashion.
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