A few months ago, you may remember the CEO of Wal-Mart offering this observation:
"Many customers are running out of money at the end of the month," said H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of Wal-Mart.
It stuck around in the news cycle a day or two, and maybe had a few ripples in the business press after that. Mr. Scott made the observation when addressing his company's declining earnings. Yes, indeed, it was news not because everyday consumers were struggling; rather, it made news because it was a problem for big business.
It took a while, but the Associated Press apparently decided there may be a consumer angle to the story.
I read an interesting article in this morning's Wisconsin State Journal by Anne D'Innocenzio, an AP Business Writer. (Since the State Journal chooses not to make it easy to fnd or fnd at all national stories, thanks go to WTOP in Washington DC for the link).
Under the headline Living Paycheck to Paycheck Gets Harder, the story begins...
The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have a healthy dinner.
Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to-day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc.
Indeed, we're initially still looking at the story first from a business angle. Retailers, with their incredibly sophisticated sales and inventory tracking abilities are seeing what I consider to be very disturbing. Not disturbing because this may mean it screws up corporate earnings, because that's not always the case.
...7-Eleven says its grocery sales have jumped 12-13 percent over the past year, compared with only slight increases for non-necessities like gloves and toys. Shoppers can't afford to load up at the supermarket and are going to the most convenient places to buy emergency food items like milk and eggs.
I'd postulate that buying what are cosidered staple food items at a convenience store like 7-Eleven means the consumer is paying more, a penalty for having a very thin cash flow. Kind of like the payday loan industry, but I digress.
What is really troubling, or should be, is that the President and his GOP lackeys and the FOX and talk radio amen chorus keep going on about how the economy is just dandy.
This doesn't sound so dandy to me:
"It even costs more to get the basics like soap and laundry detergent," said Michelle Grassia, who lives with her husband and three teenage children in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Her husband's check from his job at a grocery store used to last four days. "Now, it lasts only two," she said.
To make up the difference, Grassia buys one gallon of milk a week instead of three. She sometimes skips breakfast and lunch to make sure there's enough food for her children. She cooks with a hot plate because gas is too expensive. And she depends more than ever on the bags of free vegetables and powdered milk from a local food pantry.
Doubtful that the Grassia family is living an isolated case. Of course, now that this mother has spoken up, I suppose Michele Malkin will be finding an angle that suggests the family doesn't deserve access to a food pantry since her kids are teens... can't they get jobs, for chrisakes?
Or this:
It's bad enough already for 85-year-old Dominica Hoffman.
She gets $1,400 a month in pension and Social Security from her days in the garment industry. After paying $500 in rent on an apartment in Pennsauken, N.J., and shelling out money for food, gas and other expenses, she's broke by the end of the month. She's had to cut fruits and vegetables from her grocery order _ and that's even with financial help from her children.
"Everything is up," she said.
Of course, it all fit's together, this social trainwreck we have on our hands.
Many consumers, particularly those making less than $30,000 a year, are cutting spending on nutritious food like milk and vegetables, and analysts fear they're further skimping on basic medical care and other critical services
When I was a kid, I never fully understood what Marie Antoinette's quote about letting them eat cake was all about. If she were alive today, she's be proud of the GOP. And while I'll stop short of calling for their heads, I sure would like to kick the GOP's sorry collective ass to the curb next year. And this is just one more reason why.
(cross-posted at Kerfuffle)