The recent announcement by Morton’s Restaurant Group of a 14.7 percent decline in revenues in 2009 stands as one shining example of the hardships higher-end restaurants faced. On the retail side, discount stores such as Family Dollar have skyrocketed. Those two extremes on the “discount to high-end” spectrum support the “trade down” analysis widely accepted. Those are the simple examples to explain, and indeed, these hardships and success stories are real, not perceived — I get that.
But the conundrum I have arises from the companies in the middle of the spectrum.