Letting it all hang out.

As you can see, I've decided to let it all hang out.

When blogger readers have been in my store, I've said to them, "I'm nowhere as negative on my blog as I really feel."

To heck with that.

You can thank Jim (P.T. Barnum) Cramer for that.

I was watching him interviewed and he said something like, "Well, I really feel as though it's going to get much worse, but if I keep saying that, it makes me a perma bear. And I don't want to be a perma bear."

WTF?

If you tell the truth, your BRAND is tarnished?

So we've established that you are a shill, Cramer, and now we're just haggling over how big a shill?

Anyway, it will no longer be a surprise to any of you that I think next year is going to be a challenge.

Oh, there I go. Challenge, right. Sugar coating it.

No, it's going to be a total bear.

Anyway, at least it seems only sensible for me to plan for it.

Here's the thing. I know that 90% of the people who read this blog aren't regular customers and 99% of my customers don't read this blog.

Which sort of frees me to be a truth teller as I see it.

Also should say, that if I manage this correctly, it could turn out to be a boon in the long run.

I think I can manage this so that I don't eat into saving, I don't resort to credit, I pay all bills on time, and I keep the store up and stocked.

When it all starts back up, one year or two or three years down the road, at least I won't be starting from a hole like I have in the past, which should give me a jump on the competition.

So...

But it requires seeing it clearly for what it is.

As I've said many times before, it takes a simple phone call to order more stuff if I'm wrong.

Oh.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope to see some of you this weekend!