Signs Of An Improving Economy?

This past Saturday night, my family and I enjoyed a great dinner at a local restaurant.This area really is lucky to have so many locally owned restaurants, that do a terrific job serving up tasty meals.

If you watch the financial markets and analysts for any length of time, you'll find yourself going insane. The different polls, insights and so-called professionals have an answer for every spike and dip in the markets. They even have the "underwear indicator," which measures the markets based on sales of underwear.  I honestly thought someone was kidding me when they told me about this one. They weren't.

When we got to the local restaurant on Saturday evening, it was in the heart of dining time. After parking and walking to the entrance, I couldn't believe it. There was a line waiting to get inside the front door. I was able to make my way inside long enough to make a reservation for a table, then headed back outside to wait our turn.  The wait, turned out to be about 20 minutes, which considering the number of people waiting, was fairly quick. The meal by the way, was definitely worth the wait.

While waiting outdoors to get in, this made me think, are businesses doing better after a number of tight years? As the owner of that restaurant, it had to be both terrifying and thrilling to see people waiting in line outside your business to get in.  This brings up a couple of indicators - there's more "disposable" income, for area folks to drop some money on dining out;  your product is very good (which it is) and finally, maybe there are terrible cooks in the area (like me) who will pay no matter what, for a decent meal.

Whatever the case, it was encouraging to see.