There seems to be a number of sectors that always continue to do well during times of recession.
1. Grocery stores (staples)
People always need to eat, so they will continue buying food. It’s a necessity regardless of whether prices are going up. That’s why food is referred to as a “staple” item. However, they may just reduce on luxury items and focus on bare essentials.
But imagine if shopping centers did run out of food…what would happen? Would you be prepared?
All staple products, or industries that cater for the essentials of life, will survive this crisis. eg sewerage, water supply, hospitals, etc
2. Communication
People need to keep in touch with others - to see if they are ok, to support them and give them comfort when they are troubled, or just for fun (to escape the economic madness). And given the stated economic madness going on around the world, everyone has their opinion on who is to blame and potential solutions that can ease the pain. The communication industry will be never go bust.
3. Alcohol & Tobacco
This will continue to thrive for a number of reasons:
* People may take up drinking (to forget)
* Smoking is an addictive habit
* In times of crisis, some people tend to turn to short term vices such as these to ease their woes, despite continually increasing costs and taxes on these products (designed to curb consumption).
Well, sorry but drinking and smoking will not solve your problem in the long run.
How To Find Out If You Have An Alcohol Problem (& What To Do About It)
4. Gambling
With all of these “economic stimulus packages” being released around the world, it begs the question - will they work? Is it really a solution to the problem? For the short term, perhaps, but interest rates can only go so low and the more countries borrow the more screwed they’re going to be for a long time yet.
At the end of 2008 in Australia, many families were given a small amount of money to spend by the government in an effort to eject more money back into the economy to “keep things moving”. What do you think happened? 60% of it end up going overseas and the amount of money going through poker machines went up by the millions!
Online casinos seemed to continue making all the profits because people don’t really understand the odds and end up risking it all. Sure, if you win, you can win big - I guess that desperate times do sometimes call for desperate measures.
So very true. Did you hear about all the cows the milk farmers are having to auction off for slaughter because they're getting less and less for the mild they're producing? But we as the consumer are paying more and more. Somebody's got a faaaaaat wallet. Wish it were mine. Actually, I don't; it would feel really yucky. Last month some time I heard it on NPR.
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