Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

I have to admit, back when Comp USA shut down it’s doors I really didn’t pay much attention. I had bought a few things from there, but I can’t say I really missed the store itself and when they began liquidating I never went there to check out if there were any good sales.

When I heard Circuit City was failing, I had a momentary stutter. Circuit City? I had shopped there, I bought my first T Mobile phone there (and never looked back) and they had an awesome extended warranty that covered said phone after it died just before the three year warranty ended, even though they were no longer associated with T-mobile they honored the warranty for the full amount. I even had a boatload of rebates on the phone and I still got the original amount back, allowing us to get TWO brand new RAZRs three years ago when they were around $150 each. They even fixed a digital camera we had that blinked out. I have to admit I had not shopped there recently, and I did feel a bit bad about that. We may have gotten our last digital camera there (Canon Powershot, I love it), but I don’t buy music on CDs anymore and I buy all my games at Gamestop, used. We own a Mac, and we haven’t yet upgraded our “home theater” so we just haven’t really been buying that many things that Circuit City would sell. Still, when they announced they were closing I did feel a bit guilty. Like I could have singlehandedly saved them if only I had bought more CDs and games there, or my new iPod and sleeve.

Then I heard that Expo design center was closing, and Callaway’s Golf was also closing. Now, Expo had lots of stuff I would have liked to buy, but it was all way overpriced and much too rich for my blood. We would go there and look, then go somewhere else much cheaper to buy. Callaway’s was also expensive, but I think golf is inherently expensive. We went there once and got a gift for my father in law, then about 2 years ago the big Golf Galaxy opened and I guess there wasn’t enough golf love to go around. Then Champion Billiards closed. I was actually surprised when that store opened about three years ago. Do that many people really need billiard tables and bar stools to support a store that only sells those items? Apparently not.

It really just hit me today though, these weren’t just stores going out of business because they had stuff I couldn’t afford to buy or didn’t care about. These were people who were now out of jobs. People who were going to have a very difficult time getting a new job in this economy, where every job seems a bit more precious. Imagine the employee spending X years at retail at a golf shop. What is he going to do now? These aren’t just stores closing down, but these are a LOT of people losing their way of life. Of course the solution is not for us to go out and buy more, that is pretty much what got us here in the first place. We all went mad buying plasmas, big computers to read email and write blogs, pool tables and bar stools on our renovated basements, the new set of golf clubs to play with the boys on the weekend, the new travertine tile for the kitchen and bath along with the infinity tub. We couldn’t afford any of it, not really. So we used credit, and then the credit dried up and now the banks want their money but we don’t have it to give them.

Now all these employees are out a job just because we couldn’t say ‘no”.

I just heard today that the high-end department stores are in trouble.

Uh-Oh.

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