Randall Road

A drive on Randall Road in the northwest suburbs of Chicago leaves me with a feeling of incredulity. From Lake in the Hills to Crystal Lake, a stretch of more than five miles, shopping centers and strip malls line the six lane highway. On the same road, further south there's another similar stretch from St Charles to Aurora, as well as a shorter strip in Elgin and South Elgin, in between the two longer stretches. I haven't done the numbers, but I feel there must be a thousand retailers in shiny new stores(most built in last eight years), and hundreds of dining places. Fast food chain outlets dot this twenty mile drive and a $10+ entree restaurants are commonplace. Maybe the thousand is an overestimate, but is not hyperbole.

Commercial real estate developers and mall management companies are suspected of being in financial difficulty, but with a couple of percent interest rates, they've mostly survived so far. Again an undocumented estimate, but I don't think I observe a vacancy rate of 10% along the entire stretch.

My question is how is this retail expansion supported in a declining economy? 20% comes to mind. The top 20% of income level families are the target market, and Randall Road runs through communities featuring this demographic. (roughly household incomes over $92,000, I would guess the top 10% to have income in excess of $135,000)
It might also be observed that the current economic downturn has adversely impacted a lot more mid-level wage earners that it has the higher earning segment.

The corollary to this thesis is"What about the other 80%? I have not thought these numbers through, but in another post re Malaysia I referred to superfluous workers. My concern is that 50% of the American population (guessing at household incomes less than $45,000) are not only superfluous workers but marginalized consumers as well.

PS Thank goodness for Aldi's