by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
When nearly half of all small businesses are struggling so much that they can’t even pay their rent, you have an enormous economic crisis on your hands. The last time that we witnessed anything like this was during the peak of the COVID pandemic, but here in 2024 we don’t have a major global health crisis to blame for our catastrophic economic performance. In March 2021, 49 percent of small business owners in the United States could not make their rent payments, but that was because so many states had instituted lockdowns which were severely harming the economy. In September 2024, 48 percent of small business owners in the United States could not make their rent payments, but there is no excuse this time around…
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Close to half of small business owners couldn’t pay their rent in September, marking a new three-year high.
According to business networking platform Alignable’s September Revenue & Rent Report, 48% of small business renters could not make their rent payments. That was up from 41% in July and August. And it was the highest it has been since the Covid recovery era in March 2021, when 49% of small business owners were delinquent.
We have a “lockdown economy” without the lockdowns.
Does anyone out there want to try to put a positive spin on this?
Because if you do, I would love to hear what you have to say.
Fox Business interviewed one restaurant owner in California that has tried everything that she can think of to keep her restaurants going…
A regenerative farmer and restaurateur who closed several of her California eateries is now facing the possibility of shutting down her remaining two locations.
Mollie Engelhart, owner of Sage Regenerative Kitchen, said despite her continuous attempts to keep her restaurants afloat, they are “barely hanging on by a thread.”
“It doesn’t feel like we can hold on because I’ve run out of assets to literally liquidate, to keep us above ground and above water,” Engelhart told FOX Business. Engelhart said she and her husband “leveraged everything” including their retirement and home, in hopes that things would turn around.
I feel so badly for her.
But the truth is that there are countless other small business owners that are in the exact same boat.
Our economy really stinks.
That is the bottom line.
Of course many larger businesses are deeply struggling too. In fact, we just learned that TGI Fridays has just filed for bankruptcy…
Casual dining chain TGI Fridays Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas on Saturday with the company’s executive chairman saying it still has not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bar and grill chain, known for serving up hamburgers, loaded potato skins and $5 happy hour drinks, said the move was done to “address legacy liabilities and position restaurants for long-term success,” the company said in a press release.
The Dallas-based company says 39 of its corporate-operated domestic restaurants would remain open.
When I first started using the term “restaurant apocalypse” many months ago, a lot of people thought I was exaggerating.
Since then, chain after chain has gone bankrupt.
It turns out that I was not exaggerating one bit.
Meanwhile, the percentage of middle-income households that rate their financial situations negatively has just hit a brand new high…
America’s middle class is feeling the squeeze like never before, according to new data.
Primerica’s latest Financial Security Monitor report for the third quarter found 55% of middle-income households now rate their personal financial situation negatively, a 6-point jump from the previous survey.
“For the first time in a year, a majority of middle-income households are feeling negative about their personal finances,” said Glenn Williams, CEO of Primerica. “In fact, this latest report represents the highest negative rating we’ve seen since we began fielding the survey exactly four years ago.”
The middle class is being absolutely eviscerated, and it is getting worse with each passing month.
Last week, I was stunned to learn that hundreds of people had applied to rent a “sleeping pod” in San Francisco for $700 a month…
A company that rents “sleeping pods” in downtown San Francisco for $700 a month has had 300 people apply for its remaining 17 beds, the company’s CEO said.
Brownstone Shared Housing describes its mission as “providing low cost housing in the most expensive cities”. Its bunkbed-style “pods” measure approximately 3.5ft-by-4ft-by-6.5ft, large enough to fit a twin mattress. The pods come with privacy curtains, inside lighting and charging ports.
I still remember the days when you could rent a spectacular luxury apartment for $700 a month.
Now all you get for $700 is a “pod” that allows you to sleep in a large room with a bunch of other stinky people.
The government has been feeding us numbers that indicate that the economy is performing well, but it turns out that they were just an illusion.
For example, we are now learning that the labor market is actually far weaker than we were originally told…
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
