Many industries just aren't coming back any time soon. Although my SIL's nail salon is open a significant percentage of her long time clients have decided to just do their nails themselves for a while. Same with hair salons. Restaurants may be open but people aren't comfortable yet, for good reason.

The biggest indicators I'm following are: (1) Trump has lost the independents that voted for him in 2016; (2) he's getting even worse in the suburbs than he was in 2018 midterm elections.

Significantly, he has also lost the seniors, and they (we!) vote. I expect massive voter suppression efforts, but they often backfire too.

I just don't want to get my hopes up. I am far from over the emotional devastation from 2016.

My grandparents had a dog - a shepherd cleverly named Shep.

Sheppy was a pup for the ages with many adventures. He was like a dog from a children's book but nobody had to kill him to come of age (that's practically a genre - why?).

Thirty some years later one of my uncles married a woman with a grown son named Shepherd quite reasonably called "Shep." You can see The Look on anyone's face whenever she mentions Shep in some way. It's pretty hilarious.

I don't think Trump would win an honest election, but I'm not confident we'll have one of those. We need to be sharp about protecting people's access to the polls.

Today is going to be a better day. I am speaking it into reality.

Got out of bed 7:15, not the 6:30 I had been doing, but not 8 like yesterday. It is before 8:30 and I am logging into work. I have had breakfast, taken care of the dog, started a load of laundry, and got last night's laundry drying. I am not in pajamas and my first cup of coffee is almost done and I have a full cup of water here to start on. IT WILL BE A BETTER DAY.

A most decidedly better day!

I don't think Trump would win an honest election, but I'm not confident we'll have one of those. We need to be sharp about protecting people's access to the polls.

My news alerts are saying Trump is floating the idea that the election needs to be delayed. Of course.

I love hearing about Matilda helping out with Peanut. Buffista sprog hanging out together makes my heart happy.

I also love seeing less frequent posters posting. Hi Pix and Nora!

The sleep thing has been a little better the past couple nights. The guided meditation before bedtime seems to be helping ltc to calm down a bit.

Obviously retail is taking a big hit on two sides- it's not just traffic in stores are down and there are all kinds of super sales to drive people in (sometimes people will spend more than they woudl have but usually people just end up buying more and spending about what they would have for fewer items).

We are also facing a shortage of merchandise. The way our store will front load us with a lot of stuff and send "mid season" stuff and refills on things we normally sell or big sellers for the season. But when it's slow we get at least one truck a week.

Right now we are getting 1 truck about every other week. And for weeks we didn't get anything in. Right after we opened they pretty much cleared the warehouses of everything.

The last week in June we finally were able to get a decent amount of Red White and blue stuff but we had nothing for Memorial Day. We didn't get the majority of stuff we get for the summer. We've had to empty our stock rooms to make the store look full and now we are down to rearranging fixtures and spacing things out more and in some areas, like the kitchen department , it's just.. bare shelves and there is nothing more to pull out.

Since we were closed for Easter and most of the prom/formal season didn't happen instead of clearancing out all of that we have wrapped up the clothes and have them in stockrooms (which we have room for since we lack backstock) and are holding it for next year.

We are getting a truck about every other week and some of the smaller stores have gotten a full truck of inventory ONCE since March.

So production is down in a lot of places and that means loss of sales since we don't have product.

In some cases we can order things but in others it's just not available. And there is a huge segment of people who shop the day or day before they need something and so we are losing out on that business. Men especially are last minute shoppers.

Normally we don't get a lot of Levis shorts but those denim shorts go fast but this year we didn't get any and we had a handful before we closed and now I'm down to one pair of 32 slim straight shorts that no one is buying and no one will order them because they need them right away.

We haven't gotten anything new from most of the brands. We have started getting in some fall items - light weight hoodies, polos in fall colors but those are items we get in every year and they may have been in the warehouse.

Best Buy, Target and Walmart have all said they will be closed for Thanksgiving but they have also done well during this time and I don't see department stores being closed on Thanskgiving since we can't lose sales and if we are closed we can't fufill online orders either.

Everyone is talking about black Friday in terms of social distancing etc but it's going to be hugely different because of the merchandising issue.

There are no big movie releases so you don't have movie tie in merchandise, if production doesn't pick up then we aren't going to be able to have the inventory we would have during the rest of the year much less what we have for Christmas. I'm assuming there will be alot of stuff that you see year after year just because companies will hold on to excess and resell it the next year,

We haven't had a lot of clearance sales because we don't have a lot of extra stuff.

And then the GOP is about to send us over an economic cliff and people who have been buying will stop. I mean, it's already really slowed down but kids grow and need clothes. And we were selling a lot of suits for weddings (for wedding parties and for guests) but that has slowed down.

I haven't been to Marshalls or TJ Maxx since everything reopened but they rely a lot on overstock and last season stuff and that is going to start hurting that business model.

And there is a lack of social events which means a lack of clothes buying. This does hurt womens clothes more probably but we have seen a lack of Outfit Guys coming in to buy stuff (guys who are looking for a Look for something or have a Look in mind or are (continued...)

( continues...) tryign to get clothes to go with their new shoes)

I'm starting to lose Columbia sales to a local store in the mall because they have inventory in stock and Columbia isn't on sale as it was before.

I've always gone physically to stores as a last resort, even pre-pandemic, so not likely to change. Internet shopping and local store delivery are my best friends. While away from the city for the summer I have resorted to curb side pickup, but that works just dandy too.

Good news. A friend I often find politically infuriating had a post about why the heck she should wear a mask. It was asked honestly, so I answered her honestly. Her responses and back and forth were civil and friendly and she agreed with me. Then all the friends spouting bullshit and the man out to control you were responded to, but my post got the most positive responses. Anyway, I feel like I got through at least to her. (Her adult daughter hearted my response)

RIP Herman Cain. That's what going to Trump rallies will do for you.