In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche
Finding a store that takes Apple Pay may only be half the battle because a lot of banks don’t support the app yet. To make matters worse, banks appear to be very selective about which of their accounts support Apple Pay and which don’t. Some banks allow it for credit and debit cards, while others do not.
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So what will post-consumer society be defined by? My guess is it will be defined by a lot of choices, and a few giant retailers that provide those choices. An example would be Amazon.com.
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Nor was Chesapeake alone in growing revenues. EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) reported a TTM revenue of $13.75 billion in September 2013 that grew to $17.14 billion in September 2014, another increase of nearly $4 billion. Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) reported an even bigger increase. Its TTM revenue grew from $10.35 billion in September 2013 to $16.2 billion in September 2014, an increase of nearly $6 billion.
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The bottom line is that the economy is not working for average Americans. Incomes are falling and destroying America’s economic health. Inequality is growing too as technology lets the affluent take advantage of opportunities such as the booming stock market while the average family has a hard time buying groceries.
Read MoreToday of course next generation payment solutions such as PayPal, Venmo and Apple Pay would make it easier to distribute founds directly to the poor without much bureaucracy or expense. Since most poor people have smartphones they could simply use payment apps to get the money that they need and spend it.
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It looks as if holiday shopping season 2014 could be something of a bust. That means 2015 could become a very ugly year for department stores with lots of store closings, cutbacks, restructuring, layoffs, and losses. The retail recovery could be turning into a retail apocalypse for the department store industry.
Read MoreDollar General is doing well right now, but the geniuses at its headquarters have figured out how to wreck the company: spend a fortune acquiring a failing rival for no reason. Worse, that acquisition would require them to essentially gut a successful existing business for dubious gains.
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It looks as if Obamacare could be changing the retail landscape by expanding Medicaid. That expansion seems to be driving customers to stores with pharmacies and leaving traditional dollar stores high and dry. One wonders how long Walgreen can continue to profit from that upheaval and how long before Kroger, CVS Health, and Walmart Stores Inc. start expanding their Medicaid business.
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