I ran across this video today and just had to post about it. Apparently Popeye's, the popular fast food chicken outlet, had advertised heavily about a $4.99 special. People were disappointed to arrive and find many stores had completely run out of food!
CLICK HERE to watch a brief 2 minute video of what customers had to say about this, and note the customers... Every one is in a nice car, some wear suits and ties, many have cell phones, which they were using to call and find other Popeye stores in the vicinity...and they need a $4.99 special on Popeye's chicken to stay fed! Some even stated they had "looked forward" to the sale event for weeks, and others that they needed it to keep their family and children fed. Still thinking we have unlimited resources at our disposal, one customer complained: "They should have had a tractor trailer here with chicken on ice." The thought that the owners of the franchise simply couldn't afford to do that does not seem to have registered.
Draw your own conclusions from this...I'll draw mine. The apparent normalcy of our lives is but a thin shell. Many still have their cars, clothes, and cell phones because they bought them when times were good. But beneath this shell of normalcy the egg has been gutted. Money is tight. People have lost access to credit and can no longer spend. Equity has evaporated, and anyone well off enough to have a 401k or "portfolio" is worried about it, particularly since the government is now considering a plan to change those funds to an annuity so they can draw on your nest egg to help fund the enormous debt they've been running up, which will complete the massive theft of private money that has been underway the last year.( That's right, your 401ks and IRAs are about to help pay for the bailouts. ) In short, no level of our society is unaffected by the economic crisis we have been living through. But the need for a $4.99 special to stay fed is a telling sign of things to come in this country.
As a nation we are simply "out of chicken" just now, and the blue light special is a bust. All we have for consolation are the last few words on the sign posted at the drive through window: "Sorry for the inconvenience."
