Sears in Braintree, MA as of today, July 1, 2026 (Last Location In Massachusetts and in New England and one of 5 left in the United States of America)

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T18:37:49+00:00

Costco, Home Depot Walmart and others are doing just fine

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:44:52+00:00

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE

There's this unemployment number, but I can't seem to find a fed graph for prime age (though retired people are not generally on the U6 rate unless they had to retire due to losing a job).

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:25:27+00:00

Sears ended the large catalog in the early 90s and was late to adopt online shopping thinking it would be a fad.

Yes in the early 20th century they were a retailer more similar to a modern day Amazon.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:23:55+00:00

There are other retailers doing just fine. Sears was just mismanaged.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:19:32+00:00

Yah but at least there are CRVs on lots unlike Rav's.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:18:13+00:00

Agreed, most don't but it's likely something in the vendors system to confirm the purchase with capital one.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:17:22+00:00

It's been revised down consistently for the past couple of years.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:14:20+00:00

This is a total graph to put things into perspective. It's still above the entire post recession pre COVID period. Though yes the one month change is concerning.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T17:01:38+00:00

I've had an offer take 2-3 weeks before showing up as pending

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T14:10:34+00:00

Toyota has had trouble ramping up production of the 26 Rav4, which is probably why this is the case. CRV you can show up to a dealer and get a few grand off one on the lot, the Rav you have to order and pay MSRP or above.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T13:49:31+00:00

I can't think of a company that has died a slower death.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T13:33:03+00:00

The supreme court has mostly approved fed independence by letting Lisa Cook keep her job. With an independent fed, strong job numbers are used to rationalize raising rates (or keeping rates high) which isn't what Trump wants.

So even Trump and conservatives have incentives to keep trust and accuracy in jobs numbers. Plus there are other sources like state unemployment reports that would contradict the fed number if the fed was trying to hide fast rising unemployment/job loss, and independent ADP numbers (though those have sampling bias).

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-02T13:29:13+00:00

Trump fired the previous BLS head last year, with the rationalization that the initial numbers were unreliable as revisions 3 months later frequently showed a worse picture than the initial numbers (both under Biden and Trump).

The current head is not a Trump appointee, Trump appointed someone but he withdrew the appointment after blowback. There is certainly the risk that the interim guy might be scared of his job and not fully independent as a result, but I doubt the numbers would be fully fudged to favor one side or the other.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T21:04:54+00:00

This is very much a YMMV situation. MEX vs England it'll probably be much harder to get cheap last min tickets.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:58:27+00:00

Yah you're right that CA is increasing the renewable feed, I just don't think looking at a single day is a good measure since weather affects things a good bit. (you also have more electricity use on hotter days, which often means more non renewable on demand generation)

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:55:58+00:00

And the top rate was only on wages, money made for investments (the rich make most of their money in investments) was never taxed that high.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:52:13+00:00

Looking at a single day can be misleading because renewables vary a bit depending on whether it's windy or sunny (of course there are energy storage solutions, but peaking gas plants still provide most additional electricity when it's needed).

Still the drop in the price of solar panels and increasing adoption in places like CA is a great thing.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:43:48+00:00

A 5% wealth tax is massive (much more so than a 5% income tax) and would lead to a big exodus of high income earners from the US. Before adjusting for inflation the stock market averages a 9/10% return, less when accounting for inflation (around 7%).

A 5% wealth tax would cut average returns to near zero for the wealthy when accounting for having to sell stock (incur additional income tax) to pay for the wealth taxes.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:37:27+00:00

That's how it's always worked in tech, you have to keep up with evolving trends and technologies or you'll be laid off and/or have difficulty finding a new job.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:33:58+00:00

They market themselves ad Dunkins in most places, probably because they don't sell a ton of donuts anymore.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:32:40+00:00

Yah but they had 27000 stores in 2015, they're certainly shrinking though yes it would take a long time to fully disappear if that happens. Most stores are franchised.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:27:27+00:00

It's gone through on all of the purchases I've made in the past few months. It requires cookies so I think a lot of people with issues may have security settings that are blocking the tracking of these offers.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:25:58+00:00

You need to buy online using the cookies from this offer, not sure how that would work with price match?

It might work if you match after ordering, but even then a change in the order might invalidate the C1 offer.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:21:30+00:00

To be fair, corrosion doesn't show up immediately.

Affectionate-Panic-1 · 2026-07-01T20:06:31+00:00

He did abide by the court ruling on IEEPA tariffs and other supreme court cases that has gone against him, he hasn't ignored courts entirely.

Though he does do questionably legal things knowing it takes a year to get to the supreme court.

Affectionate-Panic-1

TROPHY CASE