I am not getting enough shopping offers. I am capable of doing many more than the offers I am getting. My rating on the shopping I have done is over 9. Please send me more offers.
John Tabor

John, are you signed up with only one company? I am signed up with a couple of hundred companies that I have figured which 20-30 are likely to have jobs in my area to check their job boards on a regular basis. Sign up with Jobslinger.com and see what other companies do shops in your area so that you can sign up with them. Jobslinger.com is free. You can vary the distance from your zip code to see how far you might have to travel for enough jobs to keep you busy. Although the jobs you see there are most likely gone, it at least gives you a quick reference of who shops your area.

This is also being a terrible year for shops, probably because of the economy. I was out on errands today and noticed that 3 of the establishments I shopped last year have closed since the beginning of December. One that was an easy $15 every 30 days I have been watching for because I usually shop it the last week of the month. When I drove by today there is a huge "Space For Lease" sign in the window. Another location really close to my house I shopped in early January and I noticed today the bulldozers on the lot finishing demolition and cleanup. So it isn't just the companies not giving you shops, it is also not having as many shops to give and my guess is that a number of folks who have been laid off are swelling the ranks of would-be-shoppers.

I had twelve Gas Stations to do one day last week and when I got to three of them they were no longer in business. One of the ones that was still open did not have any gas. I did all of those same stations a month ago and they were open at that time. I went back past the one that did not have gas and three days later they still had the hoses covered. I had asked her when I was there, since it was a reveal shop, why the pumps were covered and she told me they were waiting for a truck to bring the gas. I am really wondering what is going to happen for the rest of this year. It does not look good. I was almost embarrassed to e-mail my scheduler and tell her what I had found.

It would be interesting to know if the gas stations are closing because of a generally slowing economy or whether independents are being denied gas or credit by the suppliers to put them out of business. Several stations around here have changed branding since the beginning of the year and there certainly is no shortage of gas that I can see. Overall my area is growing with new coffee and fast food places, bank branches and large discounters building and opening, so I do see shops likely to be available by summer if these guys continue being shopped.

Yeah..my area is seeing another "boom" in new businesses too.

But, on another note, a small convenience store near me was also out of gas for a week or so earlier this month. It WOULD be interesting to know what caused it.

Outright saying that they "fear" we're "heading into a recession", I know that The State of Arizona has implemented a hiring "freeze" and told State employees that there "will be NO pay increases of ANY kind"...at least this year.

I think it's going to be "interesting" to watch the economy and the effect on businesses (and people in general) this year.

Yesterday's Federal Reserve rate cut of another 1/2% is probably about the last rate cut they will make unless there is total disaster. That should prevent a lot of the home mortgages from being able to adjust up as it will also depress other interest rate measures. While it may also encourage folks back to buying homes, the damage was done when in the wild grab for real estate prices were skyrocketting and folks were being allowed to get mortgages who really probably shouldn't have. The old rule of thumb that your maximum mortgage payment + 1/12th of your property taxes + 1/12 of your homeowner's insurance should not exceed 1/3 of your take home pay has long been abandoned, but something sensible should have been put in place instead.

As for recession, I think we have been there for a month but the "official statistics" to "determine" whether we are in a recession won't be available to the government for about six months. Certainly I am feeling very very tight about my spending at the moment because of a sense that there is another shoe to drop.