Has anyone else noticed less money out there on the streets?

[firehorse]

27. I hear you, been making jewelry since '96

My career started with my own store. Then 9/11 hit, and business died, store closed. Then I sold on the street as an illegal vendor for many years. Then after that I upgraded to a market where I paid $100 a day to sell. That was good till about 2007.

Then the markets where I sold started to compete with made in china vendors who didn't make their stuff but undercut the local handmade. This is still a huge problem. Around 2008, the unemployed started trickling in. 2009 it was anyone who could glue a feather on a headband, selling for $5.

Now the business to be in, is the guy who organizes a popup by fronting the money on a one month pop up to sell to desperate vendors. These organizers are making $15,000 a month ripping off the vendors, and the vendors are losing money with the risk.

Its all desperation on all fronts. Landlords can't rent out their leases for 5 years. There is a glut of "makers" who are undercutting the small boutiques. Vendors shell out all the money and don't make it back. Small boutiques are going out of business.... etc, etc.

It's tough times. Nobody "needs" jewelry or other crafts that makers make. Everyone is just trying to scrape by, day to day.