What Recession

[GaryKD]

I'm in the middle of the annual trek to the cold country for a grandson's birthday. Travel has been Fla Turnpike, Interstate 75 and 85. I've done this trip many times. Same route at the same time of the year. I noticed no different in auto or truck traffic. The truck stops are full. This micro sample shows private vehicles and commerical trucks are traveling business as usual. I75 was a bit light for RV's. I85 had many RVs (aobut the same as in the past) traveling both north and south.

[chasfm11]

We took our MH and toad to a mall parking lot on Sunday afternoon to test a new baseplate. Normally, we do it early in the morning but we reasoned that because of the economy, there would be room in the lot.

NOT!

There was barely enough room to hook up and turn around. Cars everywhere. As bad as Christmas time, almost.

[Rick McNeal]

Times are not good that's for sure, but I also wonder about the doom and gloom that's being spread in the media. If folks would step away from the TV they would find that life isn't that bad.

If you were planning on retiring in the next year or two and hadn't adjusted your investments from growth to safety/income your plans are probably shattered.

My wife and I just purchased a new 5th wheel. We had to wait two weeks before picking up our trailer because the dealer is having to schedule the final inspections and walk through. The amount of traffic they're receiving has caught them off guard.

[tmar10]

Good news does not sell papers or get people to change the channel. Are we in a recession, yes; will we recover, yes. Doom and gloom sells... just look at Y2K, global warming(now a climate crisis) and the current economic crisis all in an effort to demand increased government funding.

We will survive to camp another day.

[TW]

Around Langley and Cloverdale (Surrey, BC) traffic is awful... We live here now a couple of years, and have not seen such a full Highway 10 and the Malls are just loaded.... Can't just meet your friends there? Some shopping must go on!!!! We just go by our wallet and keep "things" a little longer in there!?
We try to live just like before.....
Enjoy life and hit the road / campground
TW

[ParTheCourse]

CG’s in the area south of Ocala are overflowing and I have heard the folks in the office turn away those hunting for sites on several occasions.

[lthrnk]

Down at the dealership in Cocoa where we bought the new coach. They wrote 22 prospective deals at the Tampa show and everyone was good, no backouts.

[tmar10]

Many are starting to realize that if you have maintained good credit and a means of support, we are in an excellent buyer's market. If ours had a few more years on her, we may have been searching as well.

[paz]

The campground where we are staying in central Florida is filled as are several others we have visited. Although they seemed a little slower to fill this year (maybe there were some cancellations with last-minute replacements), they are now booked up through the middle or end of march as usual.

As far as buying a new RV goes, it's a good time if you don't have a trade or if your trade is older and paid off. Many who are looking to buy are finding good deals on the new RV, but they also find the value of their trade is way off, and they can't afford to buy because they are "upside down" on the loan on their old RV.

[chasfm11]

There is another side to the story. I checked out at the contractor exit from a large home improvement store yesterday because the regular lines were 8 deep. When I mentioned it to the cashier, she said that their store had cut way back on staff because of a drop in sales. She told me that the contractor register would typically do $15K business a day before last August. Now, she is lucky to ring up $5K and that other cashiers had similar drop offs. BTW, she used to work 5 days per week but only works 3 now.

As far as I know, the Dallas area (save Frisco and maybe a couple of others) never had the big run up in housing prices and that our foreclosure rates are less than the nationwide averages. The area has had a couple of big layoffs (Bell Helicopter, Nortel, GM plan extended furlow) but that it is no where near as bad here as in MI or areas in the NE. It was surprising to hear that the home improvement business is down so hard. All the news stories said that people were staying in their homes and fixing them up instead of moving. I would have thought that business would have been great.

[K-Star]

Let's ask the millions that are unemployed if there is a recession. Let's ask those business' that are failing or have failed if there is a recession. Let's ask the 500K+ that were layed of in January alone if there is a recession. Ask the campgrounds, sporting venues and others like them if there is a recession.

Selling 22 RV's at a show doesn't mean there is not a recession nor does it mean we are out of it yet. The economy has a long, long, long way to go before it starts to rebound.

This is a pretty myopic view of the state of the global economy. Granted sensationalism sells, but pretending an issue does not exist doesn't make it "not so".

[GaryKD]

John,
Who do you think is pretending?

[ScottyP]

There is no doubt that people everywhere are hurting. Some more than others, some parts of the country more than others. But we are in a recession. Some of what is seen at the malls and resturants makes me wonder how many have yet to learn to cut back instead of perpetuating the living off credit mentality that has acted as a catalyst to the mess we are in. I work in the medical industry and the hospitals here have layed people off or are sending nurses/staff home early and the cancellation rate at the doc's offices are about 30% according to the internal med and cardiology docs I talk with.

Why all the bad news and nothing of the good? IMO if they report more of the positive side of the economy then they can't precondition the public to be willing to swallow the all spending being proposed now in the thinly veiled stimulus package.

[tmar10]

I do not think anyone is pretending we are not in difficult economic times. My brother was laid off in December, after 24 years, with a decent separation package and by the end of January the company filed for reorganization...now my brother will receive nothing from his previous employer. He has been expecting this for years so he made sure he was debt free when the door was closed behind him. He is back in school with millions of others and he will survive along with his classmates.

This talk of impending doom or collapse is doing nothing to improve our position.