Joe Mirsky

Behavior

desperate people selling old gold

I am a jeweler and I buy old gold from people. Last year it was mostly people selling gold for extra money. This year, it's for desperation money.

One woman needed $200 for medicine. She would have gotten it but at the last minute she pulled back her engagement ring and got $140.

A man sold his gold chains I had sold him years before for $600 that he needed for a car. A month later his son came in wanting to buy them back. He had suddenly died from stress. Of course, they were long gone.

200 Wanaque Ave, Pompton Lakes, NJ

Phil Henshaw

Behavior

big and bigger

There's a big difference between the individual solutions and the economic solutions talked about. People are looking for how to live more realistically, and the "experts" still want to restart the process of making ever bigger and more uncertain promises that just failed. It's that “mind split” that I see at all levels, that with one hand we look for common sense and the other for returning to black magic. I think we're really confused, and not eager to admit it. That's bound to be the only way to get out of our bind, though. [see advice on our bulletin board.]

Way uptown...

Peter in Manhattan

Bright

brother gets a raise

My brother works for a software company that specializes in IT development for large companies and handles projects with huge price tags. Being a wizard at computers who is fluent in an array of coding languages, he has always been a shoo-in for lucrative IT jobs - he got his current job even though he didn't have a BA and is still in his 20s, and now he can afford to own a motorcycle while living in Mahattan (not on the Upper West Side, though).
Around Christmas, my bro got a present that took the whole family by surprise - a 30k raise, just 5k shy of my own yearly salary. I really can't explain why that happened, except to say that a crazy amount of money is still being exchanged in the IT world, in spite of the recession. (Around the same time he got the raise, my mom, a part-time professor who lives in California, lost a huge chunk of her income in a flash, when the university she teaches at, beleaguered by budget cuts, cancelled most of her classes - which turned out to be a blessing in disguise; now she's looking for work in the non-profit activism sector.) At this point, my brother's salary is even bigger than my dad's, who has worked at a large defense contractor for over twenty years. All I can say about that is...Wow.

Veronica

Employment

More unemployed men looking for "pick-up" work

I have lived in Clinton Hill for 30 years, in the early '90's you could often find men to help do things like shovel your walk or carry home "street finds" (cool furniture) and in the past few years it had become almost impossible to find casual help. But since late November I am approached almost daily by men who would like to help me sweep or shovel my walk, clean out my garden, unload groceries from my car or even just asking me if I had any odd jobs for them - I often do hire them, but the whole thing feels very "bother can you spare a dime"...

Washington Ave, Fulton St

Kelly Kwedar

Commerce

Now Empty

I have been photographing the empty store fronts I come across daily. So many places to miss. So much hope that they will be filled again soon with a New New York.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19594312@N00/sets/72157610484803073/

641 Grand Avenue, Brooklyn

Dara Blumenthal

Commerce

So Many Sales!

Nearly every store in SoHo and down Broadway (below 14th St.) has a "SALE" sign in the window. Even the fancy foreign designers! I don't think I have ever seen SO many sales in the boutiques (and so many store going out of business).

varick and spring street, 10013

linus

Behavior

Living In Automobiles

There are many more people living in vans. Here in Rockaway Beach a couple has been living in the parking lot across my house for months. Their toilet is a bucket, plastic bag and the parks department garbage can. They argue and are always there! My buddy says he sees people in vans living in the Willowbrook Mall parking lot.

147 95th st, Brooklyn, ny 11693

Severn

Housing

Unshovelled sidewalks

You can spot the stalled renovation and construction projects in my neighborhood because the sidewalk remains unshovelled for days after a snowstorm.

287 22nd Street

Terri Ann

Commerce

Lost Dollar Discount

In Ithaca NY, our local Wegmans supermarket used to have a word scramble game posted at the dry-cleaning pick-up station in the store. You could get a dollar off of your dry-cleaning bill (up to $4) for each word you could unscramble. That's been gone as of the first week in January.

Also, on a more personal note, my fiance and I have only seen one of the Oscar nominated movies this year, as opposed to the 4 or 5 we usually see.

Kate Clausen

Commerce

Shoe Sales!

At Eric NYC on Seventh Avenue, they are selling shoes that normally retail for $400.00 for $99.00. If you buy two pairs, you get the second one for $59.00.

202 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215

thriftybrooklyn

Behavior

groceries, not restaurants + library, not bookstore

A long line out the door to get IN - at Trader Joe's 14th St Manhattan grocery store Tuesday dinnertime. Less eating out, more cooking in.

I'm checking books out of the library for the first time in a long time -- now I have time to do so, since I got laid off.

14th St between 2nd and 3rd Ave, Manhattan, Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn

Sue

Commerce

Eat Less Serve Many

The plastic take-out food plates from the Chinese restaurants are a little smaller in circumference.

Park Slope, Brooklyn

tom

Behavior

Smart Spending Good for Biz

I perform home energy audits informing people what they need to do to increase the 'home performance ' of their home tin order to save energy. I've been in business for 16 months and what I find peculiar is that, considering oil to be low and disposable income to be limited, I have never been busier. I'm ready to hire help. Could it be that people are now thinking of spending 'smartly'.

Bloomfield, NJ

Aleeda

Behavior

Recycling at last

A positive behavior I've noticed on the few times I've commuted these days is the fact that someone always grabs the newspapers that used to litter the seats and aisles of the NJ Transit trains.

Maplewood, NJ

Michael

Housing

NICE LANDLORDS

My partner and I received about a 25% pay reduction at our respective jobs. This made our rent in Carroll Gardens really difficult to meet since we basically live paycheck to paycheck. We explained our situation to our landlord and she was nice enough to reduce our rent the same amount indefinitely. TALK TO YOUR LANDLORDS, they can be reasonable!

Brooklyn

jeff

Behavior

Tight Poker Game

Played in my weekly poker game on Tuesday night. I dubbed it "Recession Poker" because it was the tightest game in years. Nobody one too much, nobody lost too much.

563 13th St, New York, NY 10009

Dan

Commerce

smaller glasses at bars

A corporate/chain bar I went to the other night was replacing their 16 oz beer glasses with 14 oz glasses.

Midtown

cindy

Behavior

Keeping the Change

I drink a lot of bottled carbonated water and these bottles require a 5 cent deposit. I used to just throw these bottles into the recycling bin but now I return them to the local supermarkets to get my deposit back. It doesn't seem like a lot but these bottles add up!
[photo by Rosa Say]

Paulo

Commerce

Economic Downturn Affecting Inspirational Target

Posted on my blog - Warning the sign I received that Target stores were going to have problems. I received a coupon from them for the first time EVER!

http://loquat73.blogspot.com/2009/01/economic-downturn-affecting.html

Roselle Park, NJ

Jordana Furcht-Rohan

Behavior

not shopping anymore

We are eating more pasta, staying in our apartment and not moving to a bigger apt with a washer and dryer like we planned a year ago, not going out to eat, I am bringing my lunch, and trying to get my portfolio together in case I lose my job. I have noticed that all of my freelancer friends are calling me looking for work (because as of now, I still have a full time job). That is new because before, they didn't have to look so hard for work.

174 Saint Marks Ave. #3 Brooklyn, NY 11238