Here in NM Dion's pizza is a staple business

[ALBliberal]

Went there yesterday at 430 to pick up an order

No one in drive through no one in restaurant

Workers with nothing to do.

Just saying….. that has never happened to me in 30 years.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Most of the stores and restaurants are not crowded any more.

[ALBliberal]

2. This was a sort of "bellweather" moment for me

And my niece said: they are saving up for 4th of July. We never had to do that sort of thing.

It’s slowing down. All of it.

[Irish_Dem]

5. A couple of months ago I went to a Five Guys hamburger restaurant Saturday at noon.

I had not been there for a couple of years, but it had always been jammed on the weekends for lunch.
My neighbor and I were the only ones in the restaurant.
We were shocked.

Same thing recently at a BJ's restaurant, Sunday for lunch.
There had always been a huge long line on Sundays.
But this time there was only a few people in the restaurant.
I asked the waitress about it and she started crying.
Said it was this way for some time and she was going to have to find another job.

[John1956PA]

7. So sad. Restaurant businesses are first to feel a recession.

Tonight, I sat at the bar at Applebee's for forty minutes while I enjoyed a drink. Five other patrons and I were the only ones seated at the bar. In decades past, the lead-up to a July 4 weekend when The Fourth fell on a Friday would see a mostly full bar at that business.

[Irish_Dem]

8. I noticed the same thing yesterday.

The lead in to a holiday weekend stores would be jammed.
Yesterday only a few people at the grocery store or other retail stores.
So they are not at restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores.

Where are they?

Maybe they all order their food and have it delivered.
Same with restaurant food.
And they get everything they want from online?

[lindalou65]

3. I know Dion's as I live very close to one

I haven't been there in a while. We go to Il Vicino for pizza now and love it. It's very busy there much of the time. I haven't seen much of a downturn in the restaurants we frequent but I have wondered if business will start declining in the near future. My husband and I are retired and have a decent income. We eat out often now.
I am really wondering what we will see in the months to come. Between people having less spending money and less workers as ICE continues to arrest our people.

[ALBliberal]

4. I suspect I live near you. Tramway Montgomery.

We also go to il Vicino often. Dion’s? Had a big to go order for out of town family. It was deserted.

[lindalou65]

6. We do live close

We live close to Comanche between Eubank & Juan Tabo. So quite close!! That’s definitely unusual for Dion’s to have no customers.

[ALBliberal]

14. My kids went to Mitchell Elementary:) so yes I know that area well.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet used to drive to stores in the evening or at night and count the delivery vans that arrived each day. It was his way of seeing how that business and industry were doing to better target his investments.

The whole thing is about 1 thing, people having money and being willing to spend it. All the rest is mumbo jumbo, consumers drive the economy forward, nothing else does.

People are saving and not spending because they're terrified of the loss of our system of government.

[Irish_Dem]

10. This is part of why the Chinese economy has crashed.

Since Covid, the housing market collapse, many mistakes on the part of the Chinese govt,
the Chinese people refuse to buy anything but the bare essentials.

This means that the Chinese warehouses are full of goods, cars, etc that the manufacturers
cannot sell. The prices are falling so it means the goods are now worth less than what they
cost to manufacture.

The Chinese govt stubbornly refused to do anything to stimulate the economy or restore
trust. So China is in a downward spiral.

[Johnny2X2X]

11. China's economy is growing again

Expected to grow at 4.8% this year.

But I think China is too dependent on exports, but that will change too. China has 1.4 billion people just waiting to be consumers. Once China's system adjust a little to making it so those 1.4 Billion people can make enough to afford the goods and services China produces, that economy will really take off. This will also mark some changes in their system of government too, consumers who buy stuff want more freedom to, well, to buy stuff and enjoy that stuff.

[dalton99a]

12. +1. We'll be in far worse shape than China.

[Irish_Dem]

13. US Federal Reserve Board doubts they can maintain it.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/is-china-really-growing-at-5-percent-20250606.html