Sometimes your environment is a great tell of what to expect in the future.  All may look great, but beneath the surface lurks a silent disease.  Enough with the metaphors…

I was in line this morning grabbing a coffee when the person in front of me being wrung-up paused at his total bill of $15.00 and change.  He seemed startled at how expensive coffee and food was.  Then the cashier was asked to go through the prices of each item.  Not only did he get coffee, he also purchased some baked goods, which totaled the $15.00 and change plus tax.  What startled me is what happened next.  He asked for paper and pen and then wrote out line by line each purchase and then added them up.  The total was $14.00 and change, which gave him pause because the two didn’t match up.  However, sometimes we forget tax, which he did.

He was mainly unnerved by the cost of everything, and proceeded to apologize to everyone in line.  Personally, it wasn’t a big deal to me, and I felt for the man.  To add up every purchase signed to me that he no longer trusts anything to do with finance.  He remarked about not trusting banks, and I’m concluding that he has lost faith in the system.

I imagine this is happening all over the country, but many aren’t vocalizing it.  They are only thinking in their heads either I need to put something back, walk away, or make the purchase with a cringe.

The holiday season will be a difficult one for retailers.