Signs of Recession

Today I overheard a strong indicator that we are in a recession. Listen to any economist and they will say that the one thing that has kept the economy humming along was the housing market. People were still spending money either on their houses or because of the equity in their houses. Once the sub-prime mortgage crises came to lite, we had various opinions on what would happen to the economy.

Today I learned that 3 Day Blinds will be closing 64 of their stores/showrooms. This is almost 40% of their 170 stores across the country. For those who aren’t familiar with 3 Day Blinds, they make custom blinds with a 3 day turn around (as if you couldn’t figure that out from the name). They do business via their website as well as their stores. Considering the nature of buying blinds, most of the time you want to see what you’re going to get before placing your order, it makes sense that they would have stores. With the strength of the housing sector, they had good business and growth.

But, now with consumers spending less, even on their homes, they are shuttering stores. It will be interesting to watch the stock returns of the other companies that revolve around the home owner (i.e., Home Depot, Lowes) and see what their returns are from the last quarter. If the consumer isn’t spending as much money on their own house…that’s the strongest indicator that we we are in a recession.