Glenn

Bright

Theater / Restaurants

Fri Night 1/30 Mama Mia was packed but was able to get somewhat decent, but not that great seats discounted tickets 2 days in advance.

An expensive restaurant in the theater district was pretty busy also

50th and Broadway, nyc, 49th St. and 8th Avenue, nyc

Andrew

Bright

Space on the subway

For the first time in 4 years working downtown, I got a seat on a brooklyn bound 2-3 train boarding at the Wall Street station.

No holiday, no bad weather. Just fewer people.

wall street station

Babs

Commerce

Recession Hour

A bar in my neighborhood (Clinton Hill) has changed happy hour to recession hour and extended the 'hour.'

Grand Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Randall Edwards

Bright

Rent

Today, a single spaced, nondescript piece of paper appeared under my door. It was from my landlord, stating that they had newly renovated 1 bedroom apartments in my building at my rent. This means that either my rent will go down, or I'll be getting a newly renovated apartment. It's not much, but at least some people won't be squeezed of every penny at the end of the month.

Joe Corrao

Commerce

The Bagel Index

The Local Court St bagel shop I frequent, now sells out of the "day old' stuff, when before they seemed to have a few bags they had to eventually toss. I guess people have swallowed their pride and realized a day old NY bagel is better than 99% of the bagels in the rst of the world...toasted they are awesome still.

Court Street, Brooklyn

Rachelle Street

Commerce

Coupon Clipping Frenzy

My 2009 resolution is to pay off my credit card bill. Since the start of the year, I've become obsessed with coupons. I spend hours every week searching for coupons on the internet, have signed up for all sorts of product groups, and don't automatically throw away the advertising papers that arrive in my mailbox. Just this weekend I stocked up on some essentials at Walgreens and saved 50% by using coupons in in-store discounts.

Mark Kalan

Behavior

A Nickle's Worth of Luck

We've stopped buying small bottles of water and now return ALL deposit bottles then use the proceeds to buy NYS Lottery tickets but never more than $1/day. A side benefit is that I only have to place recycle at the curb every other week.

kristen

Behavior

My favorite little boutique is closing

Boutique owner followed me around the store and told me each item I came in proximity to was even lower than 75% marked down.

university place

Kristi

Commerce

Uncommon Economic Indicators

Hi,

I've been listening to your promos for todays show and instantly thought of an "uncommon economic indicator" that I've noticed of late. A SIGNIFICANT reduction of the unsolicited credit card offers that used to clog my mailbox up. This is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

96 Hackensack Plank Rd. #6

Amanda Joyce

Employment

Bucking the Doom & Gloom

In short, I CHOSE to leave a job that I wasn't enjoying. I was not laid off. I had had enough, so I gave a four-week notice and resigned. My last day was the first Monday in January. Since leaving that job I have been doing freelance work, but I scoured Craigslist and Monster for a new full-time opp.

I went on several interviews and actually had my pick from three offers. I start my new job on Thursday! I never went on unemployment, and I am really glad that I took the risk and left a work environment that had become toxic.

400 W. 14th Street New York 10014

Annie Shreffler

Behavior

Supermarkets not Feeling Economy's Pain

Foodtown Supermarket in the Bronx

283 E 204th St, Bronx, NY 10467

Annie Shreffler

Commerce

Pay Your Way

During a walk around my neighborhood, I noticed that most bodegas and small shops have signs in the windows encouraging shoppers to pay any way they can. Signs say "Pay with Credit or EBT" and "We accept food stamps." This C-Town on 204th St. will even take rolled coins.

264 East 204th Street, Bronx, NY 10458

Melanie

Behavior

Signs at Citigroup

Things are bad at Citigroup... morale is low everywhere but among the lowly regular staff (not traders, not brokers, not analysts) it's almost gallows humor while we wait for the pink slip. When Morgan Stanley bought a chunk of Citigroup last week people at work started calling it Citi Morg. Get it? Sigh... The other new phenomemon is that now there's a line for the microwave in the cafeteria rather than one for the prepared (and overpriced) food.

Wall Street

Niki and Colin

Bright

Wal-Mart of ski vacations

Our uncommon economic indicator -

Though we live in Brooklyn, we're having a record year for business at our rental house near Belleayre ski resort, in the Catskills.

We think it's because people are forgoing their expensive trips to ski out west and playing in the snow locally, instead, especially given current gas prices.

We hope the trend continues, because we have exactly one half of one job between us.

538 Wagner Avenue, Flischmanns, NY

Monika Fabian

Bright

Humane prices & care!

I just returned from a vet visit at the Humane Society and am completely pleased with the service and cost. Although it took over 3 weeks to get a Saturday appointment and they've started charging $5 extra dollars to the $35 exam fee to have your pet seen on a Sat or Sun, my dog was seen by the vet, administered 3 vaccines (includ. a 3 yr rabies & a 3 yr distemper ones), given a chest x-ray, had a heartworm blood test, given a year's worth heartworm meds, ear wash flush, and 30 days worth of heart medication today. It all took under 2 hours and cost $144. Everyone was kind and accomodating. The vet (Dr. Soeda) was thorough and answered all of my questions. It just goes to show you that good-quality, affordable vet care does exist in this economy.

306 East 59th Street, NY, NY 10022

Catherine Ryan

Commerce

The Economy is Trucked Up

My husband and son got free tickets to the "MonsterJam" Monster truck rally at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. and discovered an uncommon sign of the times. The trucks all had evil sounding names: Gravedigger, El Toro Loco, Madusa (CQ), and I'm guessing this was a new addition - "The Broker." As its logo: a skull in a fedora. It was greeted with a mixture of boos and cheers. My son took this picture using my phone just as it entered. It was apparently no match for the others as The Broker went belly up (like the economy) and on its first attempt to jump a pile of cars. Attempts to bail it out and get it restarted were unsuccessful. It could not even drive out of the arena and had to be moved with a giant forklift.

Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ

John

Bright

Chinese Deliveries

I have been doing chinese deliveries for a few years now and have noticed recently that my tips have gone up. My average tip used to be around $3, and since last September has climbed to almost $4. Overall volume of deliveries though is slightly down.

Nicole Lang

Behavior

One business mocking the bad times

Every day we walk past more businesses being swallowed up by giant conglomerate companies (who are not faring too well either, obviously) So today when I did a double take at Fishs Eddy, I was relieved to see the independently owned, clever and stylish dinnerware shop is NOT biting the recession dust. They had newspapered the windows and from across the street I thought I had read, "Duane Reade Coming Soon"! But the sale is for just the opposite--NO Duane Reade coming soon.
[photo by http://nicolelang.blogspot.com/]

Broadway and 19th

Nathan Tek

Commerce

job hunt

A lot of my fellow seniors have given up looking for finance jobs and are now doing programs like Teach for America.

Yale University, New Haven, CT

m.

Commerce

Discount Linens in Temporary Stores

2nd Avenue between 71st & 72nd--"pop-up linens" store, complete with bins out front offering $1.49 bundles of dishcloths. Odd for 10021. Looks like month-to-month rental--because of 2nd Ave. subway construction or economy?

west side of 2nd Avenue, 71st/72nd Streets, Manhattan