The wife and I had a rare evening out last night and were a little shaken by what we saw. The movie theater, the Carmike Hermitage 8, had very few moviegoers. In a theater built for about 200 there were 8 of us watching the flick. When we left we noticed that the parking lot was about a quarter full. On the Saturday night of 4th of July weekend.
Next we took in dinner at Jalisco on State St. They have great food, good prices and friendly service. In fact, I've written about them before. However, the restaurant was less than half full and there were only a few folks in the bar.
The stores we walked around while in doing some shopping seemed to be faring no better. For a Saturday night, there just weren't a lot of people out and about.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the reason is reduced disposable income due to high gas and food prices. The ripple effect seems to be hitting local businesses hard if what I saw last night is an indication of what entertainment venues and restaurants are experiencing.
Has anyone else had similar experiences or is anyone's business seeing a similar slow down?
Fairy Tales by Talk Show Callers
4 hours ago
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2 comments:
No question. I was out in Lisbon at a small, family-owned restaurant that once had been regularly packed with people. They said business has been really tough; we were one of only two occupied tables in the place. On top of that, their food costs are up.
Same Here in Boardman.
We live right behind the plaza- for the last month or so it seems weekend traffic has been getting lighter and lighter.
We just got back from Wall*E at Cinema South and were the only people in the theater until about two minutes before it stared when two other families showed up.
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