We’ve recently been hearing a lot of bad news about our country’s economy. Last weekend, I became an eyewitness to exactly what’s happening.
I spent the weekend visiting a family member who lives in Silicon Valley, the area in Northern California dominated by the tech industry. Between Palo Alto and San Jose, a host of tech companies pop up wherever you drive.
After watching TV news coverage of some of the billionaires who populate Silicon Valley (SV), along with the TV series that tell fictionalized stories about workers in SV, many people may assume that SV is an affluent area filled with the financially well-off.
There’s a kernel of truth to that, of course. But the whole truth is somewhat different. SV residents run the gamut from astoundingly affluent to just-getting-by.
Saturday afternoon, I had a few hours to spend by myself, and I decided to drive around SV. Soon I spotted a mall that clearly catered to the just-getting-by. I noticed a store called Dollar Tree next door to one called dd’s discounts. I parked in the mall’s lot to see what each of these stores was offering.
I’d actually been in a Dollar Tree store in the past. It’d been a useful place to buy things like coloring books and crayons for a young child. But I hadn’t been in a Dollar Tree for a while.
When I entered, I noticed that the store wasn’t quite as busy as I expected. Even more surprising, the shelves weren’t packed with as much merchandise as they’d been. As for prices, nothing was $1 anymore, so the moniker of “dollar store” no longer fit. Almost everything was now priced $1.75, with a handful of items at $1.50 and still others $3 or more. What happened?
It became clear to me that the imposition of tariffs lauded by the current White House has sent this chain of stores into a downward spiral. Most economists will tell you that tariffs have increased prices on almost everything we buy today, from groceries to cars, from clothing to …. well, coloring books. And I won’t even figure in the cost of gas to drive to a mall.
The result: Dollar Tree stores and other former “dollar stores” are being squeezed, maybe even driven out of business. Customers are still showing up, but they no longer have a vast array of products to choose from. Formerly stocked with cheap goods produced in China and other Asian countries, these stores now have to pay more for merchandise, thanks to the tariffs, then pass the added costs on to their customers. And many customers are simply staying away.
After a short time in Dollar Tree, I walked next door to dd’s discounts, a store packed with inexpensive clothing, shoes, handbags, toys, and household goods. Here the current state of our economy really hit home. The store was hot and crowded. The checkout line included at least 30 or 40 shoppers, maneuvering their shopping carts through the aisles of the store as well as they could. Impatient kids perched on some of these carts propelled by hot and sweaty parents. I was stunned to see so many people clamoring for new clothes and household items at what they hoped were rock-bottom prices.
I couldn’t help wondering how a department store like Macy’s was faring on this Saturday afternoon. While stores appealing to the truly affluent, like Louis Vuitton, are doing just fine, Macy’s, which appeals to customers in the middle, is trying to survive. The middle is apparently dwindling, and Macy’s has been closing some of its stores in every part of the country. Its very survival is in question.
My conclusion: American consumers still want and need new things. Right now they’re struggling to find them at prices they can afford. They’re paying more than they did two years ago, before the tariffs, but they haven’t given up trying to find bargain prices on the things they want. So they’ve settled for the prices at stores like dd’s discounts. But I don’t think they’re happy about it.
Please don’t forget: At the same time, Americans are faced with zero job growth, high gas prices, and other ominous trends in our economy.
Which way is our economy headed? It’s impossible to predict. But one quick way to improve it? Get rid of the tariffs that create such a burden—an unnecessary burden–on American shoppers.
susanjustwrites
Susan Just Writes 