Archive for November 27th, 2009

Because police departments are trying to save money, many are trying more fuel-efficient cars. Salt Lake City added 5 Toyota Camry hybrids to its fleet hoping to save $20,000 a year. The police chief in Cahokia, Illinois expects a four-cylinder Pontiac Vibe GT to get twice the gas mileage of his Ford Crown Victorias. The police chief of Gulf Breeze, Florida is pursuing a grant to put electric motors in 3 of his 20 Crown Victorias to see if they can handle police work. With 15,000 municipal police departments across the U.S., fuel conservation has become an arresting idea.

Many businesses are using the idea of furloughs to save money. Workers are forced to take a day or two off a month or take a week off a quarter – without pay. In December 2008, 6 million workers were classified as “working part-time for economic reasons because of slack work or business conditions”. That’s almost double the number in December 2007. Furloughs allow companies to avoid laying off workers and having to spend more later to train new ones. Furloughs also help keep companies’ unemployment insurance rates down because most furloughed workers don’t qualify for jobless benefits. It seems furloughs aren’t just for the military anymore.

And luxury isn’t just for prosperous times anymore. A variety of luxury services and goods are doing well in the down economy. For example, the “1-On-1 Self-Indulgence Spa” in Concord MA offers everything from couples massages to chocolate body wraps. Its business is 10% higher than its previous high. Liquor stores are a business doing well nationally. Liquor sales are up as much as 10%. According to experts, people substitute smaller indulgences for larger ones in times of stress like a recession. These substitutions are called “comfort consumption”. They soften hard times.

The sale of pasta products isn’t soft. The sale of U.S. pasta products – frozen, refrigerated and canned pastas; soup mixes; and prepared dinners – rose 5% in 2008 to $6.4 billion. Sales at American Italian Pasta Co., the largest U.S. dry pasta manufacturer, rose 42%. Sales at the U.S. division of Barilla Group, the world’s largest pasta manufacturer, rose 22%. The need for inexpensive meals outweighed both high-protein and low-carbohydrate diets, which have caused a 1% to 2% decrease in pasta sales for years. The 2008 consumption of dry pasta was the highest since 2003 because it helps us get pasta hard financial times.