Been shopping lately?

People are pacing themselves, buying what they really need, not getting trapped in impulse binging. It's tough in mall land. Every trip costs more thanks to gasoline pump prices where there has been no relief. And summer approaches -- gas always seems to cost most during those vacation months. Then necessity buying at the grocery store and pharmacy crashes into an inflation wave. Food prices have hit the accelerator -- energy costs have a big impact on eats -- producing it and transporting it, and now demand for bio fuels kicks in to the pricing equation. Insurance companies, meanwhile, are escalating costs on prescription drugs. My neighborhood pharmacist says a lot of customers are getting sticker shock, going without rather than paying.

So gas, food, and drugs eat through pocketbooks before anyone gets close the clothes aisle or the electronics store. And has it been easier to get a hold of your neighborhood contractor lately? That small bedroom makeover he gave you the brush off about last year -- sure he'll be over in 20 minutes to get started. Those big box hardware stores seem to have a lot shorter check out lines -- that's for sure.

The big coup de grace on the consumer front comes when unemployment ratchets up some more. That's when people really start to clamp down on their retail spending. And we haven't even mentioned the ongoing nosedive in house prices.

Mall owners had a great ten years or so after a lousy period in the early 1990s. Oh well.

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Jonathan D. Miller

A marketing communication strategist who turned to real estate analysis, Jonathan D. Miller is a foremost interpreter of 21st citistate futures – cities and suburbs alike – seen through the lens of lifestyles and market realities. For more than 20 years (1992-2013), Miller authored Emerging Trends in Real Estate, the leading commercial real estate industry outlook report, published annually by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He has lectures frequently on trends in real estate, including the future of America's major 24-hour urban centers and sprawling suburbs. He also has been author of ULI’s annual forecasts on infrastructure and its What’s Next? series of forecasts. On a weekly basis, he writes the Trendczar blog for GlobeStreet.com, the real estate news website. Outside his published forecasting work, Miller is a prominent communications/institutional investor-marketing strategist and partner in Miller Ryan LLC, helping corporate clients develop and execute branding and communications programs. He led the re-branding of GMAC Commercial Mortgage to Capmark Financial Group Inc. and he was part of the management team that helped build Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc. (subsequently Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, Inc.) into the leading real estate advisor to pension funds and other real institutional investors. He joined the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. in 1981, moving to Equitable Real Estate in 1984 as head of Corporate/Marketing Communications. In the 1980's he managed relations for several of the country's most prominent real estate developments including New York's Trump Tower and the Equitable Center. Earlier in his career, Miller was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. He is a member of the Citistates Group and a board member of NYC Outward Bound Schools and the Center for Employment Opportunities.