NeetaT, Out of an SD county population of well over 3 million people there will always be a large group of people that will continue to spend even in a bad recession not to mention that a lot of the realtors and mortgage folks that are out work probably still have a nice stash in the bank from all the easy money that was handed to them in the years prior.
And dont forget all the people that have cashed out their home equity before the tightening of lending standards, jobs or no jobs there is still a lot of money sitting around.
This may be the beginning of the pain and what do people do when they are feeling down? They go shopping.