With the economy in a slump (the New York Times today announced that the US economy is in the 2nd straight quarter of steep decline), what are your plans for summer vacation? Will you still take one? Where will you go? How much will you spend? What will you buy? How else will the economy affect (or not affect) your summer vacation plans?
The New York Daily News, MSNBC, and Wall Street Journal (subscription required to view full article) all recently reported that Blockbuster’s recent regulatory filing with the SEC raises “serious doubt” about the company’s ability to survive. The Daily News article reports that the survival of Blockbuster hinges partially on their ability to secure a $250 million loan, while MSNBC notes that “even if the loan is funded, the company said it ‘may not have sufficient liquidity to finance the ongoing obligations of our business, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern’.”
While Blockbuster remains the largest movie rental chain in America, the success of Netflix (DVD rental through mail) and Redbox (DVD rental through kiosk) has apparently cut into Blockbuster’s profits in recent years. Discussing the former pervasiveness of the chain, an article on Salon by Mike Madden notes that “there wasn’t a suburban strip mall or a gentrified city neighborhood in America that didn’t wind up with a Blockbuster outlet.” But this pervasiveness did not lead all consumers to embrace Blockbuster; in 2005, Blockbuster settled a lawsuit related to their late fee policy. Salon writer Mike Madden harbors no nostalgia for the chain:
“Walking into a Blockbuster, even in its glory days, meant you hadn’t managed to come up with anything more exciting to do that night than rent some mainstream Hollywood crap you somehow missed in the theaters. “Make it a Blockbuster night” may have been its marketing slogan, but somehow the vibe in the place made it feel like nothing more than a clever way to say “Admit defeat, loser.” Every one of the stores was, and still is, exactly the same: all electric blue and canary yellow, with dizzyingly bright walls, trailers for months-old action flicks playing loudly on overhead TV screens and a few surly employees behind the counter. In a pathetic attempt to be an all-in-one supplier of an entire night’s entertainment, the stores throw some popcorn, candy and soda for sale near the checkout line.”
Some of Zogby’s data suggests that the current recession is leading to an increase in low-cost forms of entertainment (such as DVD rentals) at the expense of higher-cost forms of entertainment. In a February 2009 interactive poll , 58% of those surveyed agreed that they planned on staying home more instead of going out for entertainment because of the current economic conditions. But to judge from their recent financial problems, Blockbuster is not benefiting from people’s preferences for lower-cost entertainment. Why might this be? And have your entertainment plans (dvd rental or otherwise) changed recently?
consumption, culture, economics, lifestyles, media, recreation
Say it ain’t so, A-Rod. Or, as Yogi Berra once said, “This is like déjà vu all over again.” New York Yankee Alex Rodriquez, considered by some the best all-around talent in baseball, is the latest of the game’s stars to be charged with (and admitting) the use of steroids.
How badly are the reputations of the identified players damaged by their use of performance enhancing drugs? Zogby International did a poll in April 2007 to gauge how people felt about Barry Bonds breaking Henry Aaron’s career home run record. Only 8% of those surveyed hoped Bonds would break the record. Thirty-two percent said the Bonds/steroids issue showed baseball had lost its purity, while 36% said Bonds’ records should not be recognized.
Last week, Associated Press-GfK released a poll of baseball fans. More than half say Rodriguez shouldn’t make the Hall of Fame after admitting that he used steroids. In an AP-AOL Sports poll in April 2006 cited in the article, 61% of fans said the same about Bonds.
As for steroids and the game’s records, 62% now take the game’s records less seriously for that reason. Perhaps the most important of the AP-GfK poll’s findings was that 55% of fans now say they care “a lot” about whether players use steroids – down from a high of 71% in a June 2008 AP-Ipsos poll.
A recent article in Newsweek magazine poses the question: is the mall dead? The article notes that last year was the first year in half a century where a new indoor mall did not open somewhere in the country. Others write that fast-growing “lifestyle centers” – open-air developments that contain some mix of shopping, office space, entertainment, outdoor parks, recreational facilities and housing – are replacing regional and local malls as the new shopping destination of choice. And another recent article in New York Times article implies that the waning fortunes of shopping malls are the fault of worried consumers unwilling to spend money.
However, the Newsweek article lays some of the blame for traditional malls’ decline on anti-consumption, pro-environment, and fair labor sentiments held by the public. They report that 40% of young shoppers prefer to purchase items that are “socially conscious” – ie, environmentally safe and produced through fair labor – and that traditional malls have little to offer that fits this description.
Do you think the rise in the anti-consumption and pro-environment attitudes detailed by Newsweek is responsible for the decline of shopping malls, or are factors like the growth of lifestyle centers and internet shopping more responsible? Does consumers’ economic uncertainties mean that all shopping centers (and not just malls) are likely to close or have economic difficulties soon?
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