The supermarket graveyard.

I've seen relatively few people talk about this, so I will.

Time tends to warp these days with the news cycle so I think this happened a week or two ago. It's the reduction in food stamps. When I heard about my eyes grew wide because when you make a purchase at the store now and you're ready to pay, your choices are ATM, EBT, then credit.

Credit has always been the second choice as long as I can remember. That means that EBT is supplanting people who pay via credit card. The things people use the most, are put first. Grocery retailers are basically on welfare themselves because that segment is obviously very, very large. A reduction seriously spells trouble. And this is how you know.

Safeway the parent company of Dominicks in Chicago just laid off almost 6000 people and is closing 72 stores. Now I've never been to Chicago, but if that happened in California you would notice it.