wearmanyhats

In 2008 we saw the incompetent businesses, or ones where the market was saturated, go under.  Now, with gas prices still at half the rate it was in the middle of last year, what will happen this year?  

Some business situations won’t change much.  Large businesses will still buy up smaller ones.  Today, for example, Pfizer bought out Wyeth, and then cut jobs in hopes of making the business run leaner.  While that has happened to companies in the past, it hasn’t usually been announced on acquisition day that there would be job cuts.  Businesses don’t have the luxury of time any more to analyze how the changes will go through.  So some buying and selling will still go on.

Building will also continue.  New projects are going on in towns that are growing, but the building won’t be as extensive as it was in the past twenty years.  However, contractors will find themselves giving in a bit.  People who would only do new construction, may start doing reconstruction.  Smaller outfits may have to take on handyman or painting jobs.  Fussiness will go by the wayside.

Theaters have seen a decline in business, but it will get worse next year.  Family movies will probably be only attended once or twice a year rather than whenever a new movie comes out.  Play productions will continue to struggle, especially in mid sized towns where theater classes in the schools have been cut.  The entertainment industry on the smaller scale such as dinner theaters shall suffer, whether they are good or not. But just as in the Great Depression, big name actors and actresses will continue to attract the big bucks.

The flower industry will see a dramatic decline.  Towns where there are more than one flower shop will see them close.  Businesses that gave poor customer service or just can’t hack being a business owner have already been ousted.  Watch now as good, solid companies suffer a decline in flower orders.  Only special holidays such as Valentines and Mother’s days will be big.  Husbands who know that their wives are cutting back on clothes acquisitions will give gift certificates to clothing businesses or health care treats such as massages.  Hair salons may see a fall off in business as more women look to save household budget money by wearing their hair straight or not coloring it.  High end salons may close, especially if they bought into any luxury items such as expensive tanning beds or foot baths.

Desperate job seekers are especially vulnerable to buying into MLMs that don’t work, or scoundrels who pretend to help them get out of debt.  Headhunter businesses will thrive.  Human Resource people, already overwhelmed by applications, will find the stress of that work even harder.  Jobs will open and close at a breakneck speed. Who you know and luck will often determine who gets the job.

Look for more people giving up their satellite and cable television.  Look for pay by the minute phones to become more vogue and fewer people talking to buddies. Look for more youth working jobs, and fewer running snowmobiles or four wheelers just for fun.  These industries, the snowmobile and four wheeler may suffer some job losses soon.  Watch as our fish population goes up due to sports fishermen not going out as much.  Look for insurance to cut rates as fewer people going out means fewer accidents.

The changes in our economy in the next six months will be unreal.  The landscape will look so different from the 1990s that people will shake their head in amazement.  Maybe these are not all bad changes. After all, at home parties were the norm in the 60s and 70s.  Surely it wasn’t good for our children to have bigger, badder birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, or quinceaneras  each year as the parents tried to out do their neighbors.  And family nights at home playing games instead of running off to pizza parlors and throwing money into video games is probably better for the family overall.  Maybe the changes in our economy will just bring back some good common sense after all.

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