Cheryl Rogers

Commerce

hard times keep coming...

Teaneck, NJ - the middle of middle-middle class suburbia. The little Asian deli, where I get my coffee, across from the commuter bus stop. A handwritten sign went up on the cash register today, "We are temporarily waiting for our license from the state to accept food stamps."

Teaneck Road and East Tryon Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666

dan

Commerce

Sub Prime American

At one of the on-ramps to the W'burg bridge, Brooklyn side.

W'burg Bridge, BK

Suzannahartist

Commerce

Whole Earth Bakery & Kitchen hangs on

Whole Earth Bakery honoring, Mother Earth Since 1978, continues to fight eviction, and Peter Silvestri needs your help! Before his mother died at 94, Filomena Silvestri died knowing the community is a village and not NYU-ville and we won a mini-miracle and her business was not thrown out on the street. She was the vegan Earth Mom of the East Village. We need to hold on to treasures like this bakery so please help in any way you can.

Her son Peter endures the constant threat of eviction he calls "landlorditis". Now so many other small businesses have closed but the bakery hangs on.

I asked Whole Food to come to the rescue and make room in their Houston St. store front to literally house a small business and we did have a conference call but no surprises there.

If Peter does move this small business it would be the third time because of gentrification. He and his Mom moved to St. Marks Place and their first day was the Tompkins Square Riots as rioters exited the park and threw garbage cans threw store windows along St. Marks Place.

130 St. Marks Place, 10009

Michael Koehler

Employment

Artie: An Uncommon Economic Indicator

My brother was laid off from his work of 30+ years. Things weren't looking good on offers. So he went sailing. This was nothing new: Arthie's been sailing for 40+ years. Long ago I wrote about him retiring early and sailing away. But that was full of romance and notions on the seven seas. Now Art's about to get his captain's license for 100 ton, 148 passenger vessels. And soon could be interviewing to pilot a tug taking loads from MA down the coast and up the Hudson to Albany. He's been layed off and gone to heaven.

Art lives in Massachusetts

Seth

Behavior

Vacuum Cleaners

Was talking with a co-worker of mine. He friend has a few vacuum cleaner stores in NJ and says business is up. Curious. He claimes that many people in his area, Bergen County, are not able to pay for cleaning people for their houses and are now going out to buy the tools to do the job themselves.

Alan

Behavior

8th Street BMT station - April 3, 2009

Broadway & 8th Street, Manhattan

Mary Grunmeier

Bright

I guess the cell phone industry is a real bright spot

I inadvertently dropped my cell phone, which is my primary phone both personally and professionally, in the washing machine last Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, I went to the cell phone store to get a new phone at 9ish. There were a bunch of salespeople in the store, but the door was locked. I wrote a note that said, "I need to buy a cell phone NOW." The sales manager came out to tell me that this particular company cannot sell anything until after 10AM, and that I would have to wait until then.

I went to another company that apparently can sell a phone before 10AM, but the salesman there convinced me that it would not be worth the $100 penalty for cancelling the service from the previous company.

I was desperately trying to spend money, buy something, yet, I could find no one in the cellular phone business that wanted to do that.

Clearly, the brightest spot in the international economy today is the cell phone business...a business that can afford to turn business away and be smug about it.

East Hanover, NJ

amanda

Commerce

$10 bill ATMs

over the past few months many of the bodegas in sugar hill & hamilton heights have put out signs advertising the fact that their ATMs dispense ten dollar bills.. . . you know, in case you only have $13 in your checking account. . . .

145th st and amsterdam avenue

Gian Trotta

Bright

Bringing back broken-tabbed backpacks?

Ever get frustrated when a metal or tab breaks on backpack, purse or duffel bag, rendering it basically useless? I found that you can buy a snap swivel at a fishing tackle shop and attach it to the little opening in the slider. I've bought a few backpacks I've bought at the spring rummage sale at St. Paul's Church on Clinton street back from the dead this way. Here's an example of a barrel/snap swivel:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0011853112554a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=snap+swivel&sort=all&Go.y=0&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&Go.x=0&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

414 Clinton St., Brooklyn, NY

Tom Guiney

Bright

Jazzgiving

My numerous unemployed friends and I regularly get together Wednesday midday for pot luck brunches, where we all eat, play games, and "give jazz" about something that one is thankful for in these tough times.

304 stanhope St. #3L, 11237

Courtney Hirsch

Commerce

Walmart Revisited

Sale items at Fishs Eddy.

Broadway at 19th Street, Fishs Eddy

Laura Boylan

Behavior

firing threatened for ordinary complaint

In a supermarket a woman working at the checkout complains to the manager about being given a meal break after another employee who started her shift later. Manager invites her to leave and never come back if she's got a problem. She goes back to work.

90th and Broadway, NYC, NY

Laura Boylan

Behavior

downstream effects on Haiti and Domincan Republic

A Haitian cab driver in Washington Hts told me that a precipitous decline in remittances to Haiti and DR has caused much hardship. There has been an increase in crime. Those who have or are thought to have relatives in the US are the targets of both usual sorts of crime as well as kidnappings with subsequent extortion of funds from relatives in US. There is much fear.

150th St and Broadway, NYC, NY

Mario Prats

Bright

Saving Energy with Motion Detectors

At my workplace they just started installing light motion detectors in all offices, conference and copy rooms to conserve energy and I am sure also to save on electricity bills. It is a bright spot that it took a recession for people to become less wasteful!

625 Madison Ave. NY NY 10022

Bernard Klevickas

Bright

Community Gardening

As a member of a Community Garden I feel an Uncommon Economic indicator is the enormous expansion of our members and the growing waiting list. The ability of people in an urban environment to grow their own food has taken on greater importance when people are finding it more difficult to make ends meet. Rather than going to eat out or buying expensive organic produce our members are taking the time to nurture a garden plot and grow their own produce.

Two Coves Community Garden, 11-85 30th Ave, Astoria Queens, NY

Fabio Carasi

Commerce

Frequent Flyer Miles

For the first time in 25 years I was able to get TWO round trip tickets on DELTA miles IN JULY. I will fly from NYC to San Francisco. In my experience Delta is the worst (United, Northwestern are much better, for instance.) This, despite the cut in number of flights etc. Apparently not many people are flying these days.

Smokey

Bright

No traffic on I-95

There was so little traffic on I-95 that I actually made it to Washington in just under four hours! That's a first!

david weiss

Commerce

UEI coast to coast

1) In my 'hood (UWS) there is a Thai restaurant offering 30% discounts to people who can prove they are unemployed.
2) In my day-to-day sales calls to businesses in the LA area, many people tell me that they don't need office furniture because they hv downsized and hv a surplus.

200 west 108th Street, NY NY 10025

Gerry Segal

Behavior

Jacques: The Wall Street Tailor

My original satirical song "Jacques: The Wall Street Tailor", which I wrote in September 2008 as congress passed the wall street bailout package. Now I'm angry about the Big AIG Bailout? Furious because the Tax payers money goes for huge corporate bonuses for failure while poor people are thrown out of their homes? Thought that a Starbucks Latte makes you one of the elite? Think again...This song is for you .

67 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005

rexx

Commerce

Restaurant Closings in Village

When the babysitter came over the other evening I found that 3 out of 6 of our kids favorite take out places here in Greenwich Village had closed. (Pizza Lucca, Sushi Samba and Mama Buddha). A friend said Mama Buddha was planning on renting the space to a bank (not happening now) but the other two just disappeared almost overnight.