Maybe those people are walking around the mall window shopping for entertainment and spending an occasional $40 – $50. Whereas when the economy is going well, they are working at their job, ordering $100 worth of stuff from Amazon three times a week, and spending the weekends in the Wine Country or doing other weekend trips.

Maybe they are spending a few hundred bucks at Restoration Hardware on knobs for their kitchen cabinet, instead of a full-up $100K top shelf kitchen remodel.

What’s missing in the perception of observing more shoppers in the mall is the consideration of what they might have been or would like to be doing/spending in a better economy.