The financial full stop has come earlier than I thought

[DSLiverpool]

Looks like it’s not a blip and possibly were in a hard slowdown till spring.
Source is 31 websites I have visibility of, anyone concur or refute.

[lizardbrain]

feels more like a semi colon to me

[Regy53]

What do you actually mean

[okgo]

Regy53 said:

What do you actually mean

People have stopped buying the crap OP sells?

[Phooey]

okgo said:

People have stopped buying the crap OP sells?

K-shaped economy - plenty of money and spending around but it's at the wealthier end

[Regy53]

DSLiverpool said:

Looks like it s not a blip and possibly were in a hard slowdown till spring.
Source is 31 websites I have visibility of, anyone concur or refute.

I have been looking over my shoulder for 3 years . It's a difficult story that is playing out over a long timeframe. Jobless claims in USA is a good indicator for what the world is up to in my opinion.
We are fairly busy in used plant sales but some of our customers are quiet for sure

[DSLiverpool]

okgo said:

Regy53 said:

What do you actually mean

People have stopped buying the crap OP sells?

Gold medal levels of misunderstanding but still compelled to comment and demonstrate that lack of understanding.

[Panamax]

Very patchy round my way, some places busy and many not.

My theory is demand has dropped and even successful businesses need to discount to maintain sales. Let's say they used to make 20% margin but it's come down to 10%. That starts a spiral, pushing price pressure down the chain to smaller businesses. Eventually that process results in some businesses which used to make 10% now stuck with margin of 2%, not enough to be viable.

An example is hotels at a seaside resort. The nice ones on the seafront can charge a fortune in summer but have few visitors in winter, so they discount heavily to keep people coming in. This leaves the cheaper hotels without customers because they can't cover costs if they drop their prices and their potential customers are all in the nicer, discounted hotels.

It's tough out there.

[okgo]

DSLiverpool said:

Gold medal levels of misunderstanding but still compelled to comment and demonstrate that lack of understanding.

Don’t you help e comm brands using TikTok, is it not low value/high volume sales?

[SpeckledJim]

Our e-commerce is basically halved over the same time last year.

All the same operation, way of working, etc. Thinking very hard about simply switching it off and focusing on other things.

Very bad doos.

[Edible Roadkill]

Noticing out and about a lot of people I speak to out of work, or facing redundancy.

Not sure on the economy as a whole.

[Sheepshanks]

Edible Roadkill said:

Noticing out and about a lot of people I speak to out of work, or facing redundancy.

Not sure on the economy as a whole.

Seeing a lot of people from my old industry (electronics) popping up on LinkedIn as being let go, or "retired" but touting for work.

But then I went to Costco (Chester) week before last on a Wednesday morning and it was completely mental. Previously I'd been told Wednesday is their quieter day.