Anoose Taj opened his international grocery store 25 years ago and, though he’s weathered good times and bad, the current economic slump has a unique trait.
“People are still coming, but they are not buying as much as they used to,” said Mr. Taj, a native of Pakistan who came to Chattanooga 45 years ago. “If they come for one specific item, they’ll just buy that, when before they would come for one item, but then shop for three items.”
Mexico native Concepcion Hernandez said her family is sticking to buying the essentials since she’s not working and her husband only does odd jobs.
“I’m not working so we only buy strictly what we need,” said the 34-year-old as she walked out of Carnicerias Loa, off Broad Street, with her daughters and a small grocery bag. “Sometimes (the store) has sales and we buy that to stretch our money, but we don’t buy what we used to.”
With people having less money to spend, small businesses that cater to specific groups are seeing the effects of the economic downturn firsthand.