Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 'Something Just Snapped': Consumers Panic Search "Pawn Shop Near Me"

Cash-strapped Americans are panic-searching "pawn shop near me." The search trend spiked to a record high at the start of July and is an ominous sign the consumer might be pawning items or selling things that were possibly bought during the Covid boom to raise quick money amid the worst inflation storm in a generation.

Let's begin by analyzing Google search data for "pawn shop near me." The search trend started surging in January and exploded higher in the last few months to record highs just days ago.

Hat Tip: ZeroHedge

alot of big ticket outdoor items bought during covid - boats, RVs, ATVs

wondering if there is a glut of them on the market right now

Most people can’t cover 1000 dollar emergency. But they have enough money for green hair, tattoos, and nose rings.
https://fortune.com/recommends/banking/57-percent-of-americans-cant-afford-a-1000-emergency-expense/

According to Bankrate’s Annual Emergency Fund Report, 68% of people are worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income. And when push comes to shove, the majority (57%) of U.S. adults are currently unable to afford a $1,000 emergency expense.

When broken down by generation, Gen Zers (85%) and millennials (79%) are more likely to be worried about covering an emergency expense.

LGS is also a pawn shop, at one point the pawn shelves were empty now full. Owner says the pawn side is booming.

It has nothing to do with tatoos and green hair. The same problem goes back generations. The same poll or study taken in the 50's, 60's, 70's, through today would vary little. The majority of working people, struggle at times. Not growing up with a silver spoon, there were years my family struggled. When raising my family, and young, money was always tight, but we were aquiring assets. As we aged things got better, by retirement we had reached a comfortable lifestyle! I believe this is the same with the majority, after all the average working family is the majority!

There’s a difference between honestly struggling paycheck to paycheck and paying $1k/month for a truck that is used to get groceries and drive to work. The average American lives on debt and when times get hard, they are screwed. Of course it helps to have money, but most people spend theirs long before they get it. Very few people are born with a silver spoon and just breeze through life. People who are smart with money can accomplish much more than the person who can’t control their spending, regardless of the amount of money you make or were blessed with.

Wow!

I've been looking for a 24' enclosed car hauler, prices got stupid. Hopefully prices will drop a bit on things like trailers and ATV's.

Try borrowing even a small sum of money if you haven't had any debt in several years. The bankers won't give you the time of day, let alone loan you any money, unless you're already up to your eyeballs in credit card payments!

Apples and Oranges. The period you describe is the growth of the American middle class.

I did not grow up with a "silver spoon" and I never lived my earliest married years with out at least 3 months emergency funds. It was simple I did not buy stuff until I had the money and I never touched the emergency savings. I never in my entire life acquired credit card debt beyond a single months worth.

Today personal debt is a crisis, but no one cares.

Things like this are the little things that people who are mistakenly saying everything will be fine, are actually missing. There are alot of things that indicate things are really bad and getting worse daily. Like credit debt hitting a trillion dollars, new record. Record amount of people drawing from their retirement. Many indicators of the coming storm

This is not true. You can maintain a high credit score with zero debt. It will not be the highest, but high enough to obtain a loan.

The last sentence in this reply really says it all succinctly.

Spending money you don't have to impress people you don't know.

Mine is 830, and I haven’t owed anyone a dime in over a decade now. I don’t really give a chit if anyone will loan me money, but I expect they would.

No debt and if the bank refused, we will move all of our accounts elsewhere. On about an annual basis, our banks come up with some new fee or angle to garner another dime. Cookie pays them a visit, threatens to clean out those accounts, and the charges immediately go away. Been retired since 2008 and still adding to savings and investment accounts.

Last loan was back in 1990 on our home. Had it paid up in 8 months. Never a credit card balance.

My last year in the work force before starting farming
I was the old guy on the crew also the highest paid
I drove a truck wit 300k miles on it that had been paid for for years all the young guys had Duramax and super duty truck at then 60k each and I was the only one could make a full week
Don’t feel
Sorry one bit for them
They have never tought money management in school
And parents usually don’t know either
Something some of us learn some don’t

You have to take into account that many "financial people" are suggesting that everybody buy everything on credit cards for the rewards in miles, points or cash. Funniest thing I saw was someone making their car payment with a CC. Points, baby! When you cycle half of peoples pay checks through credit cards, the outstanding balance, even if "always paid off at the end of the month" will be significant.

Do my eyes deceive me or does the graph indicate that the peak in 2019 was higher than the current one?

I’ve noticed how many $50,000++ vehicles are in the parking lots of the apartment complexes in this state. Newer Mercedes and lifted late model diesel pickup trucks abound in the poorer neighborhoods. It used to be that it was the well-to-do that drove fancy vehicles and the poor drove beaters but the opposite is now true in our clown world….the poor drive fancy vehicles while the better off drive older vehicles. 😀

Years ago before we moved up here my wife was doing something in the elementary school office when an Asian lady dressed to the nines with her Louis Vuitton handbag and Rolex walks in to sign her kids up for free lunch. My wife waited in her car to see what that “lady” was driving. It was no surprise that after signing her littleshits up for free lunch at our school she got into her brand new Lexus and left..,probably headed to the casino. 🤬