About three years ago Flagler County was about the fastest growing area in the country.
Last month Palm Coast had Florida’s highest unemployment rate-16.1 %.
Before the large increase in population Palm Coast was predominantly a retirement community, Becoming a retired person immediately sharpens one’s bargaining skills and changes one’s shopping habits.
So does losing your job.
Before we retired to Florida my wife and I shopped in small, locally owned specialty stores for almost everything. Kings Market for groceries, and Roots for clothes. A nearby farm for our eggs, a butcher shop for meat. Even in a place on Main Street in Madison, NJ where you bought a live chicken and they killed and de-feathered it for you.
We watched Toys-R-Us be born and Two Guys from Harrison start up. And then we began shopping in Big Box stores
We grew older. Retired to Florida and kept the same lifestyle. However, as the years passed we began to outlive our money. We had to rely more and more on Social Insecurity checks.
So we have joined the droves of Palm Coast Geezers and Gerties eating Early Bird Specials, shopping in The Dollar Tree and going to garage sales rather than Vegas Casino’s for our kicks.
Some of us 'Senior Citizens' are becoming computer literate and can shop Craig’s List, Amazon and Ebay for bargains. But most of us oldies prefer more social interaction.
We have already been through the ‘Scratch and Claw’, ‘Upward Mobility or Bust’ phase of our lives. We no longer need to rub shoulders with 'type A' over-achievers and people with more money than us.
Now we are happy and amused checking out the tattoos and hearing the deep south, Russian, Jamacian, and ‘God only knows’ foreign accents at the Flagler Farmers Market.
Giving away to someone one of the bargains we discovered at Goodwill, or a consignment store, or Beal’s Clearance, or something that we spotted at a Garage Sale or Flea Market may still be considered Gosh by those with gelt; but we don’t think so. Or care.
Especially when we give one of our bargain treasures to someone for no reason at all. No birthday. No Christmas present. Not for a wedding or graduation. Just because we love you and were thinking of you (and we love to shop and just had to buy it and it was sooo cheap!)..
Today Palm Coast is a gold mine for bargains of all kinds. Restaurant specials, two-for-one deals ("we can always give one away"). Coupons up the gazoo. Garage sales, Flea markets, Farmer’s Markets, Consignment Shops.
Palm Coast makes being poor fun.
However...on seeing this happening...I just could not suppress my lifelong addiction to entrepreneurial adventures. To identifying trends; to starting new businesses.
So last week I piloted my Internet Garage Sale.
I’m working out the bugs at . http://pontevedragaragesales.com/
It's under construction but online.
And I will migrate that site to my PalmCoastGarageSale.com site real soon. Then we can downsize and I can empty out my garage. And (if I don’t lose my ass on it) maybe I will sell some of my friends and neighbors stuff on it, too. Hell, maybe I will become rich again and shop in Dubai. Look out Craigslist, here I come!
Check the site out and give me some advice. Tell me to “Forgettabout It”, give me some good interface design ideas... or some good stuff to sell cheap on my websites. Tell me something you have for sale.
That’s what this blog post was all about, right? People buying and selling good stuff at bargain prices!
http://pontevedragaragesales.com/
