a sign of the times

[BillE]

A floatilla of empty cargo ships...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive ... apore.html

[Markor]

I enjoyed the link, thanks!

[WestSideBilly]

About 6 months ago the big story was that many of these same ships were parking in the harbor of Hong Kong, to the point where ships were nearly hitting each other trying to navigate the port.

Apparently this was the solution.

[BillE]

A couple of photos from the article really told the story.
Empty ships on anchor with nowhere to go...


And the fleet of empty ships at night...

[Lake Hills Renter]

A few signs of the economic times I've noticed recently:

* Restaurants at lunch during the work week are dead. This is primarily true at individual places like Celtic Bayou, but also noticeable at chain places like Red Robin. It's not uncommon for us to be the only table at RR at noon on a Monday. I really hope places like Celtic Bayou survive.

* Usually the first fall of a leaf in Bellevue/Redmond summons an army of backpacked leafblowers, all vying to blow the same leaf around for a half hour. But this year, I can't recall seeing even one landscape crew working, and everything is covered in leaves -- landscaping, sidewalks, turn lanes -- everything. The landscape businesses must really be hurting.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

This is just anecdotal, but it sure seems like the only way stores are getting much foot traffic are those running large discounts. This is most noticeable, for me, at malls. The one retailer with a blowout sale is pretty busy (though not that busy), but much of the rest of the mall seems half as full as it would have been 2 years ago at this time.

[Markor]

One of my favorite places is O.E.She in Factoria Mall. The other day it was just us there for the first time I can recall in 15+ years. On a weekend no less. That mall is getting deader every month it seems. I've been meaning to email them to suggest they adopt Crossroads' model, stat. Instead they're remodeling to higher end, like a Bellevue Square wannabe. Good luck to them.

Some places are still hopping, namely decent cheap food places like Qdoba and Chipotle. Red Robin is much lower value IMO. I think we're seeing a sea change to higher value.

[Lake Hills Renter]

Microsoft finally broke down and called out the leafblower army today, at least at my building. I saw them digging in a drain with a pitchfork, so I guess flooding issues finally got them to do something.

[The Tim]

Clearly you are all mistaken. The economy has already recovered. The government told me so.

[Markor]

And the gov't recovered it all on its own, mind you.

[Lake Hills Renter]

So, a house down the street went up for sale a few months ago, but didn't sell. Then auction signs were posted, but the auction came and went without new residents. So now what are they doing? Why, putting in granite countertops, of course! Because that's most certainly why it didn't sell -- not the price.

[Markor]

Guess they didn't like what the market told them at the auction.

[biliruben]

Or perhaps an investor bought?

[Lake Hills Renter]

Now why'd you have to go an inject a sensible, rational explanation? It was a much better story when they were idiots. Now you've ruined it.

[deprogram]

They're still idiots.

Investing?? Now? Here?

Wise move.