How's The Local Economy Doing

Question: How can we know that the community's economic status has seen better days?

Answer # 1. When a new, usary (Rent To Own*) store is coming to town” announcement makes headlines in the local paper.

Answer # 2. When Dollar stores outnumber pizza shops.

Answer # 3 When the local elite shop at big box department stores.

Answer #4 When over 50% of students in two school district buildings are on food stamps.

*Here's how it works: For example, you can rent-to-own an LG 42-inch plasma TV for as little as $22.99 a week. You can return the TV any time if you don't want to keep it. But in order to own it, you need to make 78 payments or a total of $1,793. That compares to a retail price of $446 on Amazon.com. http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/07/pf/rent-to-own/

Paul Hunter Wilmington