Ahead of the recession, dollar stores thought it would be a good idea to try to lure shoppers into their stores more frequently by stocking an increased selection of food. Many of them began installing refrigerated coolers in their stores so they could sell things like eggs, milk and dairy.

More recently Family Dollar added 200 more food products — including a bigger selection of pasta and Kraft salad dressings — to its shelves.

As the economic downturn persists, that decision to focus on food appears to be paying off as more shoppers seek low prices on food.

With many consumers losing jobs or seeing their hours cut to part time, shoppers also have more time and greater incentive to compare prices and scour a variety of stores for deals.

The average household made 13 trips to a dollar store in 2008, up from an average of 11 in 2001, the Nielsen Co said. But the average household made 59 trips to supermarkets in 2008 — 13 fewer visits than in 2001.

Shopper Juan Bugueno told Reuters that he shops the Albertsons, Ralphs and Whole Foods grocery stores in his Venice, California, neighborhood — but prefers the dollar store for staples like vegetables and eggs.

“It’s cheap and it’s good,” he said as he purchased bagged spinach and garlic at a busy 99 Cents Only Store.

So, where are you shopping for your groceries these days? Are you venturing into dollar stores instead of heading to the supermarket?

A picture is worth a thousand words — and some Californians have a lot to say about the worst financial crisis in decades.

The economic meltdown was the focus of Crossman Wilkins’ (above) master’s thesis at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

“I’ve been working with this interest in my own place in the economy,” said Wilkins, 23. (At right is a detail of from the posters shown above, which feature notables like former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and current Chairman Ben Bernanke.)

The self-professed news junkie once made a poster from a year’s worth of receipts and said his latest work reflects the recession’s influence on the news flow.

“Every story is about the financial situation,” said Wilkins, who will graduate in May and enter the job market when California’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation.

The artist says his next work may take on the ailing U.S. auto industry. Meanwhile, he’s piecing together freelance gigs and is entertaining other employment options.

“I do have a lot of student loan debt. I think that’s pretty normal for someone my age, unfortunately,” Wilkins said.

Chiropractor John Nielsen (below) opened a massage school in West Los Angeles more than two years ago with money from mortgaging his home. Nielsen is throwing in the towel, but he’s not going quietly.

The first picture in this blog is by Amanda Keller-Konya and the rest were taken by yours truly.

What would your picture say?

Check Out the drop in job cuts. 

U.S.-based employers announced fewer plans to slash jobs for the second month in a row in March, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
 
In a new report, Challenger said employers announced 150,411 cuts in March, down 19.3 percent from the 186,350 cuts announced in February.  Plans to reduce staff were down in February too, which means we have seen the first two-month decrease in cuts since February-March 2007.

The March cuts were the lowest since October, when 112,884 planned job cuts were announced and come on the heels of a 23-percent decline recorded in February.

Yet, companies are still cutting much more jobs than they did a year ago.  In the first quarter 578,510 job cuts were announced, 188 percent more than the cuts announced in the first three months of 2008 and the largest quarterly total since 585,188 cuts were announced in the fourth quarter of 2001.

The government/non-profit sector set plans to cut more than 25,300 jobs in March, the biggest announcement in any area.
 
“State and local governments across the country are struggling with falling tax revenues as more and more people lose their jobs and homes,” said CEO John Challenger. He said state and local government should start to see “some relief” as the U.S. stimulus plan works its way into the economy.

Also in the basket:

Borders to cut 2009 costs by $120 million

Get “junk” food out of U.S. schools: PTA, diet group

Retail Fear and Closings in Las Vegas (WWD, subscription required)

Boats Too Costly to Keep Are Littering Coastlines (NY Times)

(Photo/Reuters)

Need we say more?

On March 10, the company that bought copy shop Kinko’s will print 25 free resumes on high-quality paper when customers stop in at any of the 1,600-plus FedEx Office Print and Ship Centers in the United States.

“We understand that the economy has affected many people in a very profound way, and we want to help,” Brian Philips, president and CEO of FedEx Office, told Reuters. “In January, nearly 600,000 people found themselves out of work. I understand that in February, by the time they add up the numbers, it could be worse.”

Philips, who said hard copy resumes have not fallen out of favor despite the growth of online job search sites, admitted that there is nothing to stop a job hunter from getting free resumes at more than one of its stores.

“We weren’t worried so much about people going to multiple stores and gaming the system. We just want to make sure people have access to this service in a time of need.”

Some FedEx employees may be in line for the free printing services.

FedEx Freight, a unit of FedEx Corp, last month announced it was cutting 900 jobs at 130 locations. In December, the corporation said it was suspending its 401(k) match and forcing its salaried workers to take at least a 5 percent pay cut.

(Photo\Reuters)

(updates with day offer began)              

Retail workers need a pick me up these days after brutal holiday sales, rising unemployment and bleak expectations for 2009.  One chain is offering its own spoonful of medicine, in a way.

GNC, which sells vitamins and supplements at more than 6,200 stores (often with buy one, get one 50 percent off promotions), is offering a 25 percent discount on its initial franchise fee to retail workers who have lost their jobs.  The fee is normally $40,000 for new franchisees, so the deal brings it down to $30,000.

Even with the discount, which is available until July 31, it will cost more than $100,000 to open up a location.  The company contends it is worth it.  GNC said its industry is valued at $21 billion and is growing at 4 percent to 6 percent a year.  That definitely outpaces the overall retail market, which even the National Retail Federation expects will see a drop in 2009.  GNC said sales at franchise locations and its own stores grew in 2008.  At the same time, it forecast that 14,000 retailers will close down this year, forcing more workers out of jobs. 

Executive Vice President of Store Development Tom Dowd said GNC opened 237 stores in North America over the last three years and has plans to open another 50 in 2009.  The offer began on Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon no one had taken GNC up on the offer, though several people have asked about it.

(Photo courtesy of GNC web site)

Check out Americans, fed up with financial doom, who are wishing for a cheerier economy in 2009.

The Marist Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York, polled 1,003 Americans about their expectations for 2009 on December 9 and 10 — days after the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed the United States had been mired in a recession since December 2007 — and found that Americans are optimistic that 2009 will be a better year.

Expectations for a brighter future were higher among younger generations, with 64 percent of those under 45 having an optimistic view compared with 52 percent for those 45 or older.

Meanwhile, the sentiment is decidedly sad.

Hefty job losses are contributing to year-end gloom in the United States, where consumer confidence hit a record low in December — a month that is traditionally marked by spending splurges on Christmas and other holiday gifts.

“The overall economic outlook remains quite dismal for the first half of 2009, and only a modest recovery is expected in the second half,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center.

Employers slashed more than a half million jobs in November alone, the most in 34 years, and layoffs continued in December. Paying off debt and cutting spending is the new fashion as consumers brace for the worst.

That shift to thrift is evident in U.S. holiday retail sales, which were the worst since at least 1970 due to a year-long economic slump, heavy discounting and harsh winter weather just before Christmas, the International Council of Shopping Centers said.

To top it all off, there is more bad news from the beleaguered housing market.

Prices of U.S. single-family homes in October plunged a record 18 percent from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Also in the basket:

Consumer confidence and home prices hit grim records

Global growth seen weak as lending stagnates

Oil falls below $39 on grim economic outlook

(Photo\Reuters)

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a prestigious private institute that decides when the United States is in recession, says we’ve been in one since December last year.

The call from the NBER came as news to almost nobody in the United States, where unemployment is climbing, available credit is shrinking, consumer spending and confidence are lagging and home prices are falling off a cliff after a huge rise that enabled homeowners to use their property as a cash machine.

When did your personal recession start?

Job losses and rising costs for food and housing are driving up demand for emergency meals from charities and food pantries around the United States. But donations aren’t keeping up.

Demand in the Los Angeles area has risen 41 percent from a year ago, said Michael Flood, president and chief executive at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

The food bank currently provides the equivalent of 560,000 meals a week to local charities, said Flood. Compared with last year, the LA Food Bank is delivering 33 percent more food to the 875 charitable agencies it serves, but that’s still falling short of need by 8 percent.

Such supply and demand imbalances are being seen around the country as the economic downturn triggered by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is also resulting in fewer donations from companies and individuals.

“It’s ironic and sad that in this land of plenty, so many people have to make due with so little,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

In 2007 — before the economy took a sharp turn for the worse — some 36.2 million Americans, or 11.1 percent of households, struggled to get enough food to eat. About one-third of the people in that group went hungry from time to time, according to a report issued this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

“This is a problem that is only going to get worse,” Fielding said of the nation’s growing hunger issues. “Things are moving rapidly in the wrong direction as we get more unemployment.”

U.S. jobless claims, which hit a seven-year high of over 500,000 last week, are expected to continue to rise and the newly unemployed are among the new faces seen at food pantries.

“More people are reaching out for help, including many middle-class families who are experiencing tough times because of the declining economy,” Flood said. “Our challenge is helping local pantries to continue serving the growing number of people seeking assistance.”

“There is no easy solution,” said Fielding. “It’s likely that we are going to need help at a national level to deal with this crisis.”

(Photos: LA Food Bank, Reuters)