OK. That’s not fair to The Bay. It’s also our spending at Amazon, Walmart, and a ton of other online stores right now. It’s almost entirely our “fault” that we’re in a wave of temporary inflation and supply-chain shortages. You can blame it on the pandemic and the drastic change in where we spend our money.
In normal times, when the world is on its axis and rotates properly, we spend about 75% of our money on services and 25% on products. But, when we’re at home, we’re not going to the movies, hockey games, concerts, or The Keg. We’re spending our money through our phones and computers buying “stuff.” Sure, there are supply-chain issues such as computer chips for cars, and one resin plant in Texas on temporary shut-down created shortages in everything from paint to garage doors. But the vast majority of shortages comes from tripling our purchase of “stuff” instead of services.
The faster we get back to the normal 75-25 spending on services vs. goods, the faster supply-chain issues will get resolved, and local businesses from restaurants to hairdressers, bars to movie theatres will heal. That should also cure the temporary inflation. Because, right now, there is way more demand for “stuff” than there is supply. Right now, there are more than 65 container ships off the coast of Los Angeles waiting to dock and unload. That’s where the “stuff” is that you ordered online. In the meantime, businesses that provide services are still way down in revenues and sales.
Those are the businesses that’ll heal our economy – not your online purchases from China! That’s why you should go to The Keg and not The Bay.
Yesterday, that’s where I went for the turning-teenager birthday party of a neighbor. It was my first restaurant visit since the start of the pandemic 18 months ago! Win-win that someone else paid AND that it happens to be my favorite restaurant chain in the country. But even a higher-end quality restaurant like The Keg is still down about a hundred reservations a day because you’re still online instead of in line!
If The Keg is indicative of what happens when you get there, you need not worry. You’ll get a table, and you won’t be standing in line forever. The process of showing your ID and vaccination proof took them less than a minute for our party of six. In some provinces, including Alberta on November 15th, you’ll need to re-print your vaccination certificate to include the QR code (or you can download it on your phone). That’ll make the process to get into any venue even quicker and more efficient.
If you need a reminder or refresher of why to cut down on buying “stuff” re-read page 216 of the Money Tools & Rules book. And sometime next week, get out from under your screen and support a “service” business in your community. Whether it’s a hockey game or a movie, a dinner out or whatever. The faster we get back to the normal 75-25 spending balance the faster we’ll get back to something resembling “normal.”
