[PRCo] Re: Lease back financing

[Richard Allman]

not congruent w/ my experience yesterday, Dennis. Though a totally 
unscientific sampling, I was at the King of Prussia mega-malls and excepting 
for the teenage "mall rats" and a very comfortable volume of pedestrian 
traffic, I was struck by several impressions: how modest the foot traffic 
for 12  days before Christmas; how few shoppers had any packages; the number 
of empty stores(not vacant, but no one inside shopping); the number of store 
staff standing in the doorway, wlmost begging shoppers to come inside;the 
deep discounts; my wife pointed out the lesser amounts of inventory(credit 
tough for the retailers as well!); and the absolute ease of parking. Not 
that I think that retailing should be the essence of the season( and I 
positively do not want to start a theological or philosophical thread here!) 
but I know that the retail economy depends on a brisk Christmas season for 
its margin. As I said, my sampling was my impression only and totally 
unscientific. BTW, no weather issues to suppress shopper turnout. Merry 
Christmas, all! RICH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis F. Cramer" <dfc1 at windstream.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 7:56 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Lease back financing


> Do unemployment figures tell the whole story?  Am I correct in thinking 
> they
> only disclose the number of persons receiving unemployment once that runs
> out, they are no longer classified as unemployed?
>
> I agree with John, that no matter where I have been (Delaware, Washington,
> Allegheny, Butler & Armstrong Counties in PA and Wilmington, DE) over the
> past month, the crowds are large and the cash registers buzzing.  Even 
> when
> they do have enough employees to cover them.
>
> People who are working still have disposable income and the credit cards
> keep them buying even if they do not have the disposable income.  This is
> what got us into this mess in the first place.  People living beyond their
> means.
>
> I guess I grew up understanding what it was like to go without and to 
> always
> save for a rainy day.  We never knew when the coal mine was going to go to 
> 3
> days a week or some guy would get pissed off, dump his water, and create a
> strike.
>
>
> Dennis F. Cramer
>      Trombone
>
>
>
>
>