Sunday, April 13, 2008

Recession Proof

Whistling past the graveyard.

Click on the images to see the map.



10 comments:

D said...

Are you sure that the RiteAid didn't simply succumb to a virulent metastasized Walgreens'?

And r: cession, perhaps this is just the Vegas market showing that there is a saturation point; you don't need, and can't support, a drugstore or Starbucks on every corner.

The_Scum said...

Second!

Damnit.

Yet even more commercial is being built and built and built. As Mike Shedlock asks "How many nail salons do the US really need?"

Where I am off Durango and Flamingo has the most commercial (supermarkets, banks, nail salons etc) density I have ever imagined. One strip mall by me has 3 times the vacancies to actual tenants with Salvation Army as the anchor store.

Temper that with the knowledge I have always lived in the sticks.

The_Scum said...

Oh yeah, SRS is a double short ETF that focuses on commercial real estate. I have 450 shares presently (slightly underwater right now) but have made thousands on it in the past eight months. It even pays a small dividend quarterly. Be forewarned it has some extreme volatility.

The commercial real estate meltdown has barely gotten started.

Lavi D. said...

...perhaps this is just the Vegas market showing that there is a saturation point

Sort of. It's also, however, a result of tons of housing which was thrown up in haste and is now sitting vacant, housing which has failed to supply the never-ending stream of clients on which these establishments counted.

The Smiths looks like it was about 20 years old - it could very well have been the first supermarket out this way back in '84 or something.

But now, there are newer Smiths no more than 3 miles in every direction from this one. Not to mention just as many Albertsons in every direction as well.

Lavi D. said...

"How many nail salons do the US really need?"

Excellent.

From my father's hospital room on the fourth floor of Southern Hills hospital, I can see acres and acres of new, vacant housing along with several strip malls open and under construction.

I will not visit any of these newer businesses, simply because I can't stand to see the pain and desperation of the owners and staff.

Somewhere near here, off Sunset and the 215, I saw a brand-new Port-'o-Subs with a "Closed for Business" sign in the window.   I mean, the stucco's still damp.

¡Ai!

Lavi D. said...

Oh, and I don't know if anyone got the play on words, but "Recession Proof" can actually be meant to say that these photos are Proof of a Recession.

Such a wit...

D said...

Lavi spake: "Such a wit..."

Proof indeed.
86 proof on a good day.

Who benefits from headlong expansion and building?

Well, the builders certainly (short term anyway), and the real estate types who cut the slices of cake and pick up the crumbs (to paraphrase Tom Wolfe).

Is there any difference between the "pain" of someone who chose the wrong time, place, or business to open shop and the the pain of someone that *didn't* try, and thus lost out on being the next Gary Kildall?
Oh never mind about him - he got killed in a biker fight. That must have been really painful.

Lavi D. said...

Is there any difference between the "pain" of someone who chose the wrong time, place, or business to open shop and the the pain of someone that *didn't* try...

Well yes, there's a major difference as far as I'm concerned.

In the latter case, I will never wander cluelessly into his hopelessly failed endeavor, therein finding myself captive to the soul-draining angst of his employees and his disheartening horror of bankruptcy.

The_Scum said...

"simply because I can't stand to see the pain and desperation of the owners and staff"

Hmmm, Addresses please.

Who was Gary Kildall?

Lavi D. said...

Hmmm, Addresses please.

That's an interesting challenge.   I don't really want to go into places where people are screaming inside "PLEASE BUY SOMETHING", but I might just do so to substantiate my previous post.

Who was Gary Kildall?

It's too easy these days for someone to just put words into Google, but you have to believe me when I say that I knew this without assistance from artificial intelligence - Gary Kildall was the creator of CP/M.

I have a Kaypro II out in the garage.


Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.

-Hunter S. Thompson


Dedicated to the other side of Las Vegas, namely; the sprawling, mad, incoherent underpinnings of the world's favorite destination.

That, and the occasional ranting about nothing in particular.