An outing to Carmel-by-the-Bay that immediately followed a visit to the Monterey Outlet Mall was very eye-opening.
Carmel was packed! Nearly every two-hour parking space on the streets was filled. The sidewalks were brimming with people. Some restaurants had lines of people waiting to be seated. And this was at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
We stepped briefly into a shop that sold pens and paper. The hope was that in addition to finding a cool journal (which we did find, but did not purchase) we could check in with the salesperson about a finding a local bookstore. We left shortly after we overhearing a woman choosing the $295 pen to add to her collection. Notice the missing decimal point. Yes, this was a nearly $300.00 pen! And I saw several on display, including a jewel-encrusted one, for over $1000!
In all the shops that we visited, nothing sold for less than $50. Nothing. Of the shops we visited, the average price for any item was $300. And the place was packed! There was no shortage of money in that little town on the last Friday of September.
In contrast, the Monterey Outlet Mall where we began our day was pretty quiet. Well over half of the store fronts were empty, 2/3 if I wanted to be realistic. We saw only a handful of people while we looked (mostly in vain) for some great clothing deals. The candy store was the happening place, the few visitors all seemed to gravitate towards the recession proof goods.
So it would seem that in the midst of a recession, the people who have always had money still do, and the people who could use a bargain can't find one. Interesting.
