Retails sales are down, so where are the bargains?

Well, yes, maybe you are looking for the wrong sort of bargains. Winter outerwear is seasonal, and in North Texas you should be hitting a peak demand right now. Here in Houston, we're expecting your cold weather this weekend.

There are big sales on fall and summer-weight clothes. Now, apartments in Texas: We never had the big run-up in costs that the coasts did, so there isn't a big slump in prices now. The foreclosures in Texas generally are not as bad here as elsewhere, so that probably is not as big a factor in rents.

Unless, of course, you were in Galveston or a coastal county instead of Amarillo; costs there are sharply up since Ike and the housing shortage. Car repair is a not as "elastic" as some goods and services; when you need a water pump replaced, you need it and you go ahead and pay for it. I had one blow out on I-35 once, and believe me, I didn't bargain!

You said "maintenance," but I think of that as more like changing the oil, which (some of us) might defer an extra ... more.

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