One business that usually does well in down economic times is do-it-yourself or home improvement stores. You take on projects yourself like painting and lawn care that you would normally hire others to do when times are good. You might even take on bigger projects you would not normally consider.

If you make $1000 a week, why scrub your own toilets?

I see landscapers everywhere in South Florida. Mostly immigrant crews. Legal or illegal? I don’t know and frankly don’t care.

But Home Depot’s sales are down 26% from last year. I was in to purchase some materials a few days before Christmas, and the checkout lines were not even long.

If a so-called recession proof business is already in a recession, are we now in a depression without knowing it?

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Charles Lamm, retired attorney and lifelong scanner, posts articles on his Virtual Joe Friday blog. His latest project is Affiliate Marketing for Scanners.

“As usual, when the Federal government legislates an unworkable, ineffective policy like employer sanctions for hiring illegal aliens, it not only continues that policy but also tries to up the ante. It’s as if the theory is that two policy wrongs will somehow make a right.”

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Charles Lamm is a retired attorney and a lifelong scanner who recently discovered his “affliction”. You can read this and other articles – on a variety of topics, of course – on his blog at http://www.virtualjoefriday.com. His websites include http://www.clixforbrix.com and http://www.your-dating-directory.com.