Sunday, March 07, 2010

Out of business


What the recession looks like
London, ON, March 2009


It's easy to treat the economic downturn as a kind of abstract, something that exists only in headlines. But walk around your neck of the woods and I'm sure it won't be long before you see the physical impact of it all. Namely, when folks lose jobs and lose confidence, they stop buying stuff. Which forces businesses like this out of business. Which causes more folks to lose jobs. And so on. Fun little cycle, isn't it?

I've driven by this storefront countless times since I first took this. It's still empty. Sadly, most of the adjoining units in this tired old strip mall are just as bare, waiting hopefully for the day when life will return here. I often wonder if that day will ever come.

Your turn: What does the economic downturn look like where you are? If you've got a monochrome picture to share, head here.

5 comments:

Mike Wood said...

That could be all of St Thomas... I really like that floor. would love to shoot in there.

william manson said...

excellent picture friend, extremely talented :)

Rinkly Rimes said...

Here in Australia we've been saved by our minerals. We're merely digging up Australia and shipping it off to India and China! We haven't gone into recession at all. But it's dangerous to rely so heavily on just one source of income, I suppose. We used to 'ride on the sheep's back'; goodness knows what they call this!

sage said...

There are now a number of empty storefronts downtown... it's sad. The bookstore is gone and even the coffee shop is struggling.

You mentioned skiing in my blog recently, have you ever been to Ellicottville, NY? I use to live there, good skiing and there are a lot of Canadians who travel there to ski.

Glennis said...

There are so many empty storefronts in my neighborhoods. It's very sad. Nice monochrome photo, Carmi!