Scottsdale | Scottsdale Sucks

Field Reports - North Scottsdale

Report from the field (North Scottsdale):

Wife works for a major food vendor with her assignment covering all of North Scottsdale/North Phoenix/Cave Creek/Carefree supermarkets and specialty stores like AJ's. According to her, marked decrease in customer traffic and reduced sales as voiced by employees, who all chime: "it's slow, it's dead". Managers in effort to cut costs are walking the floor and asking employees if they want to leave early. Many, I'm told are looking for second jobs to make up for lost wage hours.

And it's only April...once the four natural disasters hit, (June,July,August & September), its surely can only get worse.

- raven

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I stopped by the AJ's off Scottsdale road yesterday on my way to check on of my properties and noticed well.. the entire strip center was nearly vacant, and the AJ's had only 8 or so customers in it. And of those customers except for me they we're all older folks in their 60's plus which is what is left in north Scottsdale..the old retires that actually have money and are now enjoying the place all to themselves.

- Matt

Hmm, this doesn't sound like an "affluent" town to me....

Not everything is Bush's fault. Really.

A public service message from Scottsdale-Sucks.com:

Remember the election in 2006? Thought you might like to read the following......
 
A little over one year ago:
 
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
 
Since voting in a Democratically controlled Congress in 2006 we have seen:
 
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
 
America voted for "change" in 2006, and we got it!         
 
Remember, it's Congress that makes the law...not the President. He has to work with what's handed him.

Quote of the Day: "My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it." - Barack Obama

Reader Comment of the Day

My new vision of the diplaced Scottsdale house/condo owners is: Children of the Corn.

All of those bizarre Scottsdalean botox beauties, gap-toothed construction worker goons, $30K millionaire bar rats, chicks with fake racks, drifters, shysters, grifters, tweekers, con artists, thieves, pimps, trailer trash, etc.--that have taken over Scottsdale--will probably end up in tent cities or wandering around the sage and scrub brush of AZ cities with cooler climes, like Payson, Prescott and, Flagstaff like Children of the Corn.

Don't be surprised, this hot summer, if you venture out to one of the nicer areas up north and it seems like it's become a movie set for Children of the Corn Pt. IV, with all those vagabonds scrounging around for their next meal, or trying to shake you down for your hard-earned dollars.

It's gonna' get fugly...

- Joe Jacari

Deadbeat Arizona homedebtors "don't want to pay"

This is sickening. We hear all the b.s. in the media and from politicians about bailing out people who can't pay, but it seems in Arizona, many people are simply refusing to pay their mortgages even though they can:

As housing prices fall and rates on some mortgage loans rise, more homeowners are walking away from their homes, according to housing-market watchers.

These typically are people who can afford their mortgage but don't want to pay on a loan that is more than their house is worth.

Disgusting. But there's one positive in all of this - credit has gotten very tight, will get even tighter, and the "no doc" days are long gone. These deadbeats have no idea that they'll never get credit again after what they did, and the loss of easy credit is like a death knell to a Scottsdale phony. Credit is their very lifeblood.

Scottsdale #2? (UPDATED)

Some friends of ours were in San Diego this weekend for a business conference at one of the hotels in the Gaslamp district.

It was my first time there and I could not believe my eyes - talk about a bunch of fake, trashy, pretentious people. I have to say it's the only place I've ever been to that actually rivals Scottsdale for trashiness. I even got rear-ended by a dumb 20-something in a BMW to reproduce the true Scottsdale experience.

I now know why Scottsdale people all rave about San Diego and how they wish they could afford to live there.

I also know why so many Arizonans have a negative view of California - San Diego is the only CA city most of them have ever been to.

In all fairness, downtown San Diego *is* a second home for much of Scottsdale, so for all I know the trash I saw was just a bunch of Scottsdale people visiting for the weekend and not actual San Diegans.

UPDATE: I got a lot of emails on this one - thank you for setting me straight - from what I hear, this kind of behavior is mostly restricted to the Gaslamp and most of the people I saw were very likely visitors from Scottsdale and that other scum town, Las Vegas. This was also confirmed by my girlfriend's cousin who lives in P.B.

Congratulations Scottsdale! This means you still hold the title of most classless city.

Scottsdale car sales plummet, tax revenues plummet too

Gee, like we couldn't see this one coming: Not only is the City of Scottsdale hurting from a drop in property tax (home values are down and a reported 48% of property taxes have gone unpaid in the past year), but now they're reeling from a massive drop in sales tax due to a grinding halt in car sales.

What a shocker - a bunch of people who never had any money and bought luxury cars for the past 6 years on home equity credit suddenly can't afford to buy cars now that the easy no-qualify loans are gone forever. Howe about these excerpts from the article:

Scottsdale's retailers are reeling from the effects of a sluggish economy.

Even in an area known for its affluent residents and high-end retail department stores, consumers are becoming choosier about how much they spend.

I hate to break the bad news to them, but these things don't happen when you have truly affluent residents. They're a hallmark of a lower-middle-class community. And that's all Scottsdale is.

PS: HousingPanic today posted a link to active Scottsdale foreclosures since the number is absolutely staggering.

EDIT - here's a great comment someone posted on the original article - he's right:

You'd think that photo radar would be enough to carry the city, not to mention all the cash they get from slightest degree DUI's. That's how they act anyway.

What about all the dwindling taxes from the bars and restaurants? Guess they aren't mentioning that. I'm sure that has had an effect. Way to go Scottsdale, you have made people afraid to go out anymore

Stealing drinks and Scottsdale's discredited Wikipedia page...

Yesterday I posted a real Scottsdale website complete with real articles on how to enjoy Scottsdale nightlife, including suggestions on stealing strangers' drinks to save a few bucks. Thanks to war_shu_duck for this comment comparing Scottsdale's discredited, fictional Wikipedia page to the real Scottsdale:

The way its written on Wikipedia you would think these Scottsdale people would just pull out their Centurion cards pay for their drinks and leave an overly generous tip. I have seen on more than one occasion people in Scottsdale drink half a drink and then comment that something was wrong with the drink to get another free one. Its always amazing though how they manage to force half or more of the drink down. lol I have seen similarly classy people at the grocery store attempting to return a half empty bottle of wine. Another move these affluent people like to pull is going out in a group and conveniently forgetting their wallet or credit card at home. Can they borrow some money from you and pay your later? This most often comes after they have ordered not before.

Anyone else seen this nonsense?

OhSoScottsdale.com

Three posts down I shared their delusional thoughts on Scottsdale's fashion "scene."

I browsed through the site and read some of the articles. One gave tips on how to save money on Scottsdale nightlife ... one of those "tips" was to steal people's drinks whenever they get up to dance or go to the bathroom. Another article made the Pink Taco out to be some kind of super-exclusive nightclub for the rich.

Classy, huh?

I first thought it was a satirical spoof site at first, but it's very very real, and a perfect example of Scottsdale today.

Anti-development nuts begin PV petition drive

The anti-development zealots are at it again, this time in Paradise Valley, in an attempt to block the new Ritz-Carlton. Here are a couple of relevant comments from the article discussion:

These people say that condos in resorts are evil and should be kept out of their "exlusive" community... I say look at these people and see them for the delusional hypocrites they are.

Ever heard the term "Parasite Valley"? Well now you know where it comes from.

Paid signature gatherers will stand out front of a grocery store or post office, lie to people, and get them to sign. People are generally too stupid to read what they are being asked to sign and take the paid signature gatherer's oral description, which is often wrong.

Second drive-by shooting in a week

Scottsdale earned it's "street cred" last week with a drive-by shooting, and now there's been another one, early yesterday at Scottsdale Road and Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd ... meaning it took place in the "upscale" part of this "affluent" town.

What a joke.