Bricks and mortar shopping malls have been in decline for a long time as various anchor stores ceased to exist, but as long as the marginal consumer is tapped out financially while still facing a variety of lockdown hangovers, this trend can be expected to accelerate.

Total retail sales growth in Canada has slowed recently, cooling to 1.5 per cent last year after rising to 8.5 per cent in 2021, according to data from CBRE Group Inc. The commercial real estate company predicts total sales growth of 1.7 per cent for all of 2023. At the same time, a flood of retailers are shutting their doors for good, leaving mall units vacant for months or sometimes years on end.

In fact, I went to Saks Fifth Avenue at Sherway Gardens (in Toronto) with my wife one morning during the week; they didn’t open until noon. The sign said that they were open seven days a week between 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., or by appointment,” Minakakis said. “I thought to myself, ‘what is happening here?’ Is that a part of being unable to recover staff? There’s a lot of question marks.”

In related news.

When World War One began, the common perception was that it would be over in a matter of weeks. The reality turned out to be very different. Similarly, the West got involved in the conflict in the Ukraine because they believed that after a brief application of sanctions Russia would be cowed into withdrawal. Five months in, we are now finding out just how misguided that hope was. And now we find out that our ally is well on its way to becoming a long term financial ward of Western taxpayers.

Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz has asked its international creditors to defer payments on its debt for two years, fanning expectations that the government may soon do the same.

Naftogaz which has a $335 million bond maturing as well as two interest payments due on July 19, said Russia’s invasion had left it short of cash as many of its customers were now unable to pay their bills.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Jordan Peterson wrote about the dangers of monkeying with complex systems that are a critical linchpin in the economy. Thanks to the prevalence of the idiotic notion that the economy can be paused just like a DVD player, we are now faced with a serious breakdown in our economic infrastructure.

Oksana Klausmann had booked a trip from Toronto to New York City for late June and says…she and her daughter went through customs only to discover that they were not on the flight manifest, despite having their boarding passes.

From there, she says they were taken to a small room packed with other families….

She described the room as not having enough seats for everyone, forcing some to sit on the floor, and one small washroom with no soap, toilet paper or paper towels.

Several hours later, they received an email saying their flight was cancelled. An agent then arrived with a pair of police officers confirming the situation.

“What happened next should never happen to my daughter and me. Riot, angry people, screaming, yelling, pushing, and a lot more,” she said. “It was unsafe, scary, violent, and hostile. I took my daughter and we tried to leave the room filled with more than 200 or 300 angry people.”