Car Repos UP, what a surprise. New furniture sold at Consignment Stores
Moms generally know when economic trends change, before Corporate America gets wind of it. We see it, in our every day lives, managing households. A good friend once bought Snapple stock and made a killing in the early 1980’s, because she knew how many cases she loaded into her car each week at COSTCO.
Car Repossessions 101
In these tough economic times, not only are home foreclosures on the rise but also car repossessions.
After my divorce finalized at the beginning of this year, I had two more big life changes: sold my car and moved myself and my kids from a home we owned (sold it before the market collapse, thank goodness) to a rental home.
I was driving around one day, wondering where the heck I’d come up with $10,000 for 1st, last and security to rent a home so that my home could be fixed up for sale (um, 3 kids, two dogs, not especially ‘new buyer’ friendly), when I realized I was driving an asset. I drove my two year old Land Rover into the dealer and traded it for a 2000 Ford Expedition, got the cash I needed. I owned the Land Rover and now I own the much less valuable, but very serviceable for driving loads of kids, Ford.
I started hearing stories about car repossessions. That’s when you know the economy is really hitting the skids. People can’t afford their car payments. It also shows how much of an edge we live on, that we don’t even own our own cars. We’ve been so mesmerized by the whole ‘low interest rate, no money down’ concept, that we don’t seem to OWN anything. My son wondered why we got rid of the car with the 13 internal speakers and got a car that has a tape deck, and a CD player. I explained the economics and he was fine with my decision.
When I moved my kids, to a gorgeous home with lovely landlords, I needed a few pieces of furniture. I wandered thru Macy’s Furniture Store, did a lot of online looking and ended up walking thru my local Home Consignment Store. Guess what I found? New furniture. Tags still on each piece, never been used. Not really the old-fashioned version of consignment (bring in your old stuff, sell it, get part of the proceeds) The new furniture was brought in by small stores. They know that some money is flowing, but its not flowing at full-price stores. It is flowing, not so much at outlet stores as at consignment stores. If a piece of furniture sits on the floor for more than a week? At the consignment store, you can ask for and get 10-20% off the already shockingly low price.
U.S. Retail Sales Drop in October by Most on Record (Update2)
By Shobhana Chandra
Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) — Retail sales in the U.S. dropped in October by the most on record, pushing the economy toward the worst slump in decades.
The 2.8 percent decrease was the fourth consecutive drop and the biggest since records began in 1992, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Purchases excluding automobiles also posted their worst performance.
Spending may continue to falter as mounting job losses, plunging stocks and falling home values leave household finances in tatters. Retailers from Best Buy Co. to Nordstrom Inc. are cutting revenue forecasts ahead of what may be the worst holiday shopping season in six years.
“We are in the eye of the storm,” said James O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, who accurately projected the decline in sales. “The recession is clearly intensifying. The next few months will look pretty bad. The fourth quarter will be even weaker.”
So I purchased a sofa, three tables and then went into the back room of our local flooring store and bought a gorgeous rug, all for less than the price of one sofa at Macy’s…
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