Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The Depression:
Up Close but Not Yet Personal

Uh, oh, it is getting closer--two of my favorite consumption spending outlets just bought the farm.

One is the Borders out near Arco Arena in Sacramento--the one handy if you happen to have a half-day layover at the Sacramento airport.

And the other, a big mainstream watering hole near campus in Palookaville, where tame gazelles come to refresh themselves, at risk of loss of bodily integrity to more predatory creatures (they also served a nice Cobb salad).

In either case, I can't say that I'm surprised. The Arco Borders has always been empty enough that you could fire a cannon down the aisle without knocking over anything but a display rack. Contrast the Borders out next to the UC Campus in Davis, which is usually overflowing, sometimes with people actually buying stuff.

The Palookaville eatery was a bit more iffy. Some hours of the day and weekend they seemed to pack 'em in, but they occupied a lot of real estate with some fairly ambitous fixtures. Of course it might just be a landlord who got greedy and who will now have to pay taxes on some nonproductive dirt.

On the eatery, we did get stuck holding a $30 gift certificate (it was, as they say, a gift). And I have to admit that the best place to eat in Palookaville is still our house. Although that might not be saying a lot.

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