If the economic slowdown starts to manifest itself in shopping at the supermarket, it's a sign that we're in trouble (Photo: ShutterStock)
We are at the height of the days of reports, but most of us have a tendency to ignore them.
What is our connection to the reports, we ask - it's not like I hold shares in the public companies, right?
So here is our first mistake: we are all invested in public companies, most of them with names we have never heard before.
How does that happen?
Almost all of our savings, from the training funds, through the provident funds to the pension funds, are invested by the public companies - on paper, this is how they are supposed to keep our money, which they usually succeed in doing.
Only in the last year, when the capital market reflects the economic slowdown and the measures to fight inflation, they - that is, we - are directly in the pocket.
But beyond that, what should especially concern us are the unsuccessful reports of the retail chains.
What's the connection, you ask?
We'll get to that right away, but first a small disclaimer.
A bit like the tech, biomed and alternative energy companies, which soared to crazy heights during the Corona days, so was the case with the stocks of the retail chains: remember the days when we were only allowed to "spend" in supermarkets and pharmacy chains?
Suddenly this competitive industry seemed sexier than ever: companies started buying small chains and the big chains didn't know what to do with the profits.
I mean, the drop in the value of the shares can certainly be understood, in a world where suddenly there are also restaurants and cinemas and not just a supermarket.
The retail chains are a sensitive sensor.
While other areas depend more on trends, fashions and business opportunities, the chains sell us mainly food and essential home equipment.
That is, the demand for the products sold in them is supposed to be rigid and therefore a decrease in their profits, as shown in the reports of the last quarter, is a warning sign for all of us.
They have a lot of excuses, for example, there is no network that did not mention in its reports that most of the Tishrei holidays this year fell in October, which will only be included in the summaries of the last quarter, or that in July-August this year, unlike the previous two years, there were hundreds of thousands of Israelis abroad - that is - fewer shopped at the supermarket Only we know the truth: we started saving
.
Even those who have, that is - those who don't switch to an accelerated heart rate when the checkout phase ends, fearing that their credit card won't go through, keep what they have aside. Who knows what a day child is? After all, with the competitors Already downsized and laid off - and even if not, everything becomes so expensive that you only buy what you really need.
And when the bills don't amount to giving up a vacation, but end up in the supermarket cart, it's a sign that the situation is not good.
Why are hiatists who fear layoffs bad news for all of us? (Photo: ShutterStock)
When the hi-tech saves, the waiter is fired
And not only the retail chains show weak reports.
The same is true in the other branches of the business sector, from high-tech companies to insurance companies.
Even if you are not directly employed in these industries, you have good reason to be concerned.
Take for example Heitkist who until yesterday enjoyed not only a fat salary, a package of options for the day when the company will be spun off and endless rounds of competing parties, which allowed him to come every month to his managers and ask for a raise.
He may have annoyed us a little, but financially that high-tech guy was good for all of us: he paid high taxes to the state coffers, he flew abroad, lived in B&Bs, partied in restaurants, bought apartments, got his hair cut once a week instead of once a month, his children enrolled in all classes on a free basis "S... in other words: he indirectly employed many of us and allowed us to enjoy the boom in the industry, even though for some of us programming is like Chinese.
Now he fears for his future, keeps the credit card deep in the electronic wallet - and sooner or later, we will all start to feel the peripheral damage.
So it is true that we have already learned the rule according to which when the rich shrink the poor are hungry, but the reports of the retail chains show that the poor have already started shrinking too - and this is very bad news for all of us.
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