We're Screwed

I had never been in a Coach store until today.  Even after today, I've only been to an outlet Coach store. Drove all the way to the desert outlet in Cabazon to look for a few things and the experience of being in an outlet Coach store was a 15-min realization that civilization is pretty screwed.  It was as if a Boeing 747 landed on Interstate 10 and unloaded its passengers from some Asian country just in front of this desert outlet.  Women in their 30s buying ten $159-handbags, husbands six $120 purses, middle-aged women opening store drawers looking for a particular color purse.  What fucking recession? At least 100 people were shopping in an average sized store front.  A checkout line for people purchasing 3 items or less and a separate one if you're buying 25 handbags.  It was also a rare sight to see people buying $1200 worth of leather good and paying cold, hard cash!  Plastic accepted, of course but they brought a planeload of cash across the Pacific.  Thing I couldn't figure out is whether these people are reselling them or giving them away to family and friends.  I've walked by other Coach stores before and didn't really see more than a dozen or so clients in there but I suppose an outlet is a special place -- even if it's in the middle of the California desert.