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Chatting with retailers far and wide (meaning across the country, not that the retailers themselves are far and wide), it’s apparent that there is no unified good, bad or indifferent response to ongoing recessionary times.

Retailers’ response to the basic question “How’s business?” varies from sunny to gloomy to assorted degrees of middling, usually vocalized by “eh,” which is still better than “meh.”

The army/navy experience has always been filtered through regional economies, local demographics and the intangibles of retailer business acumen rather than a broad national trend that raises or sinks all boats.
Right now, it seems like retailers in more urban centers are doing somewhat better than rust belters or others in areas of the country that have been hit hardest by the loss of manufacturing and factory jobs.

In summation, the army/navy retail market is a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll. And that’s the way the Great Recession will probably play out, with pockets of ongoing hardship and a very uneven and stuttering recovery. But are we at it’s bottom right now, looking up, tapping our feet impatiently waiting for the economic lift?

Ultimately, though, most army/navy retailers will endure and survive. They are and always have been a resilient and resourceful bunch.

We’ve always known that the army/navy industry happens to be a musically gifted lot; among us are professional drummers, guitarists, singer/songwriters, keyboardists and even one guy with his own music-oriented radio show. We submit the following YouTube link as further evidence of how surpies can rock - here’s Marty Cohen of Mickey’s Army Navy in Warren, OH, playing drums in his Beatles tribute band Get Back. Marty runs rings around Ringo with this rendition of With A Little Help From My Friends. Sure glad its the Beatles’ version and not Cocker’s. Oh yeah, the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXyS5PMaxJk.