the economy

THE ECONOMY

I have for the better part of two weeks give thought to the economy as to how it has affected Wiggy’s.

But first a little bit of education.

The other day I was drawn to an article about the trucking companies going out of business. The article mentioned about a dozen. Some filed for chapter 11 I think one chapter 7 and the rest were just closing the end of April.

These were not fly by night small trucking companies, but companies that had between 200 and 400 drivers. If memory serves correctly, they were all in the eastern part of the country.

The number of employees that will be without jobs is a few thousand when you consider dock workers and office personnel.

Reading this article made me think of a lesson I learned from an older man who was a customer. It was in the early 70’s and we were experiencing a warm snowless winter nationwide. He made skiwear and his sales were very poor as were outerwear and skiwear firms nationwide. Anyway, he told me there are two things that tell you the economy is bad, a slowdown in trucking traffic and the slowdown in the sale of corrugated boxes. If merchandise is not boxed it is therefore not put on trucks.

I just saw this article about a truck manufacturer. 

"For more than a century, the Mack Trucks plant on the outskirts of Allentown, Pennsylvania, has been churning out heavy equipment to haul stuff from place to place. It is one of the largest employers in the region, providing hundreds of the good-paying, blue-collar jobs that President Donald Trump and his allies want to promote in America.

The Trump administration believes that high tariffs will boost the prospects of American manufacturing, but one iconic truck company is now preparing to lay off hundreds of workers—because of the tariffs."

 This means there is a lot of fuel no longer being sold, maybe tires are not being replaced and I could go on with what is not being spent since these companies are closing.

It was at this point I got on my boat and left on the sailing adventure.

When I think about all these people no longer having employment and the number of government employees who have been fired, I realize how this affects Wiggy’s when there are thousands without work then I think how many of them might have been thinking of buying a sleeping bag or whatever.

I have been watching sales at Wiggy’s slow since January to the point that I must do whatever I can at Wiggy’s to keep things going.

I looked at the list of sleeping bags and I can reduce the cost of the ULTRA LIGHT and SUPER LIGHT mummy models from a 10 percent discount to a 15 percent discount. These models are Wiggy’s number one sellers, so I have the room to increase the discount.

After all of these years of being in business I am devastated by all of what I have to do to keep my business going, to this a believe I am not alone.

 I keep reading questions as to how long the slow down will last and all Ican think about is how long it will take for people who have lost their jobs to get new one's and rebuild their bank accounts, so I not hold my breath.