The Here & Now is Coming Round

When the economy sucks, people don't hesitate to share their strategy for getting along on less.

Or maybe they just share it with me in particular because I'm jobless and they figure I can empathize, which I can, but probably no more than anybody else these days.

A local bookseller told me that her strategy is to buy something from a local business every week.

She's absolutely right about doing this and it would b great if more people made that effort to support local businesses right now.

If we lose them to this recession, we may not get them back. Shop rva and all.

I was at Total Wine (pricing decanters, not wine...don't ask) and ran into a wine rep I know stocking shelves.

We chatted about how the economy has changed people's patterns; for him, it's his going out and drinking habits.

The former happens less often and the latter means he chooses beer over vodka tonics.

I told him I know most every wine special in town and which nights they apply.

He told me that consumers are still buying plenty of wine, but it's cheaper stuff in larger quantities.

The owner of our neighborhood yoga place told me that she expects this to be a bare bones holiday season at home and she was referring to Thanksgiving as well as Christmas.

She said her little family plans to cut back almost completely on holiday expenditures, which most people would probably acknowledge have gotten to be excessive anyway.

I always hated mall/big box shopping, my car is paid for and my expenses minimal, so I continue to use my small discretionary income for supporting local restaurants, markets and artists.

When things rebound, I'll just use my increased income to support the same things to a greater degree again.

It'll be interesting to see which habits borne of this recession people maintain once the economy picks back up.

As we've all seen, our collective memory can be very short.