Sit down restaurants open in Schuylkill and Carbon county

SOME SECTORS OF ECONOMY BOOMING

RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL STORES STILL CLOSED IN LEHIGH AND NORTHAMPTON

Sit down restaurants opened in Schuylkill and Carbon county for the second weekend. They have reduced seating, but generally business was good. I went out for breakfast yesterday morning and it seems the crowd is coming slightly later than the past, but business was off to a brisk start. 

There is a reported boom in Real Estate with houses selling within days of being listed and often inquiries received with just a rumor of an upcoming listing.

Hardware stores are having the best business that they can remember. Implement dealers report strong sales of farm and garden machinery.

Home improvement centers are continuing to experience strong sales with lumber prices rising and shortages of some lumber products reported across the country.

There is a year long waiting list for swimming pools.

There is a year long waiting list for pole buildings and garages.

Auto sales have been reported to be strong.

While some businesses are still closed in Lehigh and Northampton county it is benefiting adjoining counties who are open. 

Big box retail stores may not recover in the near future. There are many other options to find what you need and once people get into the habit of their changed buying habits it may be hard to turn around. They will need an aggressive campaign to regain their market share.

While take out seems to be going well for some local restaurants, the competition in nearby counties for sit down dining will likely hurt their business. It is time to reopen the rest of the state. There is now an unfair disadvantage against those counties still closed.

Overall it seems the economy is recovering well. Some business's report employees are reluctant to come back to work, since they are making more on the enhanced unemployment than working. Many are getting over $1000 a week tax free. This program runs until July 31, it will likely not be extended.

While there are still weak sectors in the economy, further stimulus may be counter productive to the long term recovery.