Is everybody broke?

Some will be broke, some will be just surviving, some will be doing ok and some will be loaded.

What kind of shops do you see closing down?

Is it when someone opens a successful coffee/gourmet burger/ice cream/etc place and then X number of copycat businesses open and Y number go to the wall in a short time as the market gets saturated?

The amount of people scrambling for Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Bruce Springstein €100+ tickets would suggest there's quite a few people not broke!

People can't afford a house, crammed in with the parents and house shares so money that might have gone on a deposit is going on luxuries, tickets, weekend city breaks, Charlie, what have you.

Being broke and living at home is the new normal and people are adjusting to it.

Those tickets just mean they're not spending money on meals outside, or drinking, or shopping, or whatever else.

Not broke, but earning 6 figures and having to budget for daily expenses like shopping etc, absolutely.
I saw a graph showing we were in the top 2 of the EU27 for cost of living etc and I'd believe that. Our shopping costs even with migrating to Lidl and Aldi has almost doubled in the last 18 months.

€1000 net income per week isn't big money nowadays for a family with a decent enough mortgage. Don't know how people are getting by.

Who doesn't interact with the property market? You either rent, have a mortgage or live with your parents because you cant get either of the above or your extremely privileged and have paid off your mortgage or been gifted a house.

6 figures is a lot of wage. how do people get into a situation like that, mortgage & childcare?

Significant chunk of retail has shifted online and continuing

This will mean that city centre medium and large retailers will eventually close in tandem with people discouraged, for good or ill, to drive in to shop.

Clothing, shoes, hardware, homewares etc will move online and to peripheral shopping centres.

Corner shops, vape, mobile shops, restaurants, pubs, hotels, coffee shops will be left.

Aging population will keep pharmacies open.

I dnt know, buying clothes online is a pain and often doesnt work out, I hardly ever buy clothes online.

I live in the west of Ireland.

House prices in my estate have risen by 25%-40% in about five years.

There are plenty of expensive cars about.

There is traffic congestion.

Nationally, employment is strong, unemployment is low, profits are high, and household finances have improved.

I think if you're in the area of retail that sells essential things, the 'bread & milk' sector then things will stay much the same. Everyone needs food and prefer to buy local services like getting hair cut etc.

It's the hard and white goods, electronics market that is being hit with online competition. People will go to the local co-op to buy a spade as it's handy but will buy the new lawnmower online etc as it's cheaper.

We produce goods that traditionally we sold through shops. Now it's 50/50 wholesale sales v online sales. Furthermore the number of outlets who will stock our goods is shrinking by the year. Many want to carry fewer lines and just stick to the 'bread & milk'. This has not been helped in the western counties the last 2 years with less footfall both in domestic and international tourism. Irish people loved the staycation for a year or so but are now flocking abroad again (if they can fly) and international traffic is down in the sort of people who'd be buying our stuff. If you play golf and stay in a 5 star, it's grand. If you're on more of a budget and looking for lower priced accommodation, not so much. The state has hoovered it up.

So this all adds up to less demand, fewer sales and turnover and closures.

What furniture chain closed down?

propping up economies is how our economies work, subsidisation is very common, commercial real estate is in serious trouble across many parts of the world, including here in ireland, valuations are being revised, all of which could seriously impact investment sectors including pension funds, dont be surprised if the odd fund goes bust soon, and possibly requires more state subsidisation in the form of bail outs……

…the metrics we use to relate the health of our economies rarely reflect the world of the average, with many sectors currently experiencing record profits, record share prices etc etc, but with only small percentages truly experiencing these benefits, its very likely labour strikes will continue to rise, in order to try create some sort of balance

Yeah, I don't think it takes an economic genius to see the potential for a very hard landing when the economy turns. Prices have gone up fairly steeply compared to wages, particularly in terms of housing.

For whatever reason we very much have a boom/bust economy, it has been the same for 30 years.

No, of course not. Corporate profits have never been higher!

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