Anyone NOW seeing a major shift in people dining out/spending? I know this topic surfaced a few months ago about how people are still seeing restaurants packed, etc. Curious because with the exception of a few friends I know who are financially strained, I haven’t seen a major spending shift towards constraint. The vast majority of people I know are still spending and saving (or not at all) like its 2004. These folks are all across the spectrum of So Cal industries and span a wide age range, primarily in the 30-50s, married, single, etc. My friends are still planning big vacations, new car purchases, etc. Some of these folks have major debt from being upside down on their homes, to car, credit card and graduate school debt. A lot of people I know here in So Cal also seem to be in lala land when it comes to how long they feel it might take them to find a job. Many people I know think they can find a job in under 3 months and therefore don’t really need much more savings than that. I can say personally I am spending MORE than I did in 2003-2005 timeframe because I’ve been taking advantage of this and the great deals out there to buy a few things I’ve been delaying gratification on for years. At the same time, I don’t own a house and have 0 debt so I feel very comfortable spending.
I have noticed that a lot of downtown/uptown and coastal SD restaurants/bars that never had happy hour specials now have them 5 or 7 days a week so I can only conclude that there has been some spending shift. Like people still eat out Thurs-Sat, but the Sun-Wed nights out has dropped off.
