Hello All,
For what it’s worth, I just came
back from my yearly “solo week” in Florida,
Singer Island to be exact. I like to just go
and detox, hang out at local establishments, stick my feet in the ocean and
clear my mind, while staying as far away from the upper end hang outs as
possible. My observations were a little disquieting and I’d like to share
them with you.
The taverns I like to hang out in have
always been among the most popular, usually crowded to capacity on any weekend
night, including Sunday, and still at least half-full on a Wednesday. One of
them happens to be have one of the greatest Karaoke stages I’ve ever
seen. Very elaborate stage with very high-end speakers and mics and even
lighting. Very popular DJ, people coming from 100 miles away to get there. This
is very a very locals oriented place. I’ve been going there now every
year at the same time since 1999.
Last year, it started to change, fewer
people, but still a good time. But this year, I was in total shock at what I
saw. I came in first on a Wednesday, and Mel, the DJ I’ve known for
years, tells me “Gene, I think I gotta hang it up soon. There’s no
traffic anymore. My nightly fees are being cut. They’ve cut out Sundays
and it looks like Wednesday is going too. I can’t live like this. ”
He was right about the traffic. The place was like an empty bowling alley. I
had to wait an hour past the normal start time just to get one more singer in
the joint.
Then on Friday night, I returned and it
was the same thing, perhaps 10% of the normal crowd size for a Friday. Then
came Saturday. I go to pull into the parking lot at the regular time, and there
were no cars around AT ALL except the employees. I was stunned. I went in, and
I’ve never seen so few people in that bar, ever, on any night, in all
these years. It was worse than the previous Wednesday, and you never see that. The
jukebox, which is usually cranking until the Karaoke starts, was silent. The
employees and bartenders looks rattled and scared, roaming around aimlessly.
From my conversations with them, they told
me the same story over and over. Nobody has any money to go out and have a good
time anymore (remember, this is a very local joint, not some here today, gone
tomorrow tourist hang out). Their customers all tell the same story, that gas
is too expensive, food is too expensive, and their mortgages are swallowing up
all their money. They can’t afford to go out.
This particular bar is also one of the
rare ones in the area that closes at 5 AM, therefore, it becomes a bartenders
bar after all the other places close up at 2 or 3 AM. They tell me that this
crowd is gone as well. The other bartenders and waitress’s business is so
bad, they have no tips, therefore no money to use after quitting time. So this
is not just the tale of some dump that fell under the radar. This IS the place
to go around these parts. I think it’s a hell of a barometer, one that is
not being picked up on in the press.
So what is this saying? If the majority of
the populace cannot afford to go out for a good time anymore, and/or there’s
no tourists coming around, are we already in recession and why aren’t we
hearing more about this? Even 9/11 or the hurricanes didn’t affect
business this much. What I saw was truly outside the bell curve. Where else is
this happening? These people are truly frightened for their livelihoods.
This may just be a localized phenom, but I
wonder about that. To quote my friend Mel, “People I know, older couples
up north tell me they can’t afford to come down here anymore. They got
too much to worry about back up north.”
One more Mel quote: “My friends that
work at local Publix supermarkets say the average “ticket” per
customer is way down, as if they’re getting very selective in what they’re
buying.”
Just one man’s observations. Anybody
else out there have any anecdotal evidence?
Gene