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What bussinesses and or industries would fair best in a recession or a depression?

Beer, gardening, and beer gardens.

Viewed as an employee or an investor?

Healthcare....employee
Pharma........investor

As a small to mid-size business owner: landscaping

No-one over the age of 30 wants to do their own outdoor maintenance anymore. I swear, if every 5th person in CT decided to become a landscaper we'd all still be swamped with work.

Food manufacturing. My company is considered a re-packer, co-packer. We do well in good and bad economy. Actually do better in bad economy. People always need to eat. We feed them.

Morsecode wrote:As a small to mid-size business owner: landscaping

No-one over the age of 30 wants to do their own outdoor maintenance anymore. I swear, if every 5th person in CT decided to become a landscaper we'd all still be swamped with work.

Yup

Any job not able to be outsourced and requires good education.
Male nursing has done well. A friend,as well as family members have become assistants and registered nurses.

Agriculture. In particular small, diversified, direct market farming. Think; good food people can eat not grains.

thedrifter wrote:What bussinesses and or industries would fair best in a recession or a depression?

Out of curiosity , why do you ask?

Lending. As hard times hit historically, not just in the US, there are typically not a lot of people prepared for it. The savings rate as reported by the St. Louis Fed is currently at 2.7%. Personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income (DPI), frequently referred to as “the personal saving rate,” is calculated as the ratio of personal saving to DPI. That is pretty telling.

Rodebaugh wrote:Viewed as an employee or an investor?

Healthcare....employee
Pharma........investor

Viewed as an employee, investor, owner/operator.

TXBullion wrote:

thedrifter wrote:What bussinesses and or industries would fair best in a recession or a depression?

Out of curiosity , why do you ask?

I hate my current job and was wondering what else I could do and not want to shoot myself daily. (Joking about shooting myself). Would like something that that will still be valued when everything falls apart.

I would think that anything that satisfies basic human needs would be recession/depression proof. Small and locally focused farming (food), nursing/health care (health), home renovations/improvements, etc. (shelter). I would think that as the economy gets worse, non-essential goods and services will take a much harder hit than basics. But I have been wrong about many things before.

Also, I would say that any kind of repair would be in higher demand in a recession/depression. Car repair, appliance repair, etc. When the money is rolling in and the washing machine starts making noise, you pay $800 for a new one. When money is tight, you pay $150 to get the old one fixed. Just my 2 cents.

thedrifter wrote:

TXBullion wrote:

thedrifter wrote:What bussinesses and or industries would fair best in a recession or a depression?

Out of curiosity , why do you ask?

I hate my current job and was wondering what else I could do and not want to shoot myself daily. (Joking about shooting myself). Would like something that that will still be valued when everything falls apart.

Do you have any particular skill set? Do you do any investing? Do you have any hobbies that could be profitable?

thedrifter wrote:What bussinesses and or industries would fair best in a recession or a depression?

fannie mae and the auto industry.




someone ripped the laissez faire page out of their econ book.

Agriculture. I know it's a vastly broad field but it has treated me well and some of the best years were since 08' if that tells you anything.

I wonder how this effects our debt to gdp ratio? That is some mighty fine footwork with the "patriotism" ploy.

Agriculture, beer, food

In the Great Depression, two industries that did well were gambling and entertainment (movies). Tobacco also did relatively well.

If you can find an industry that caters to a need that is partially addictive, gambling, smoking, etc. That will probably do well. As an example, look to Greece's Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP). They are STILL making good money, even though Greece is going through a depression that is probably as bad as what the USA went through in the 1930's.

Food processing would probably be good. Utitilities (water, electric, gas) will probably do relatively well.

You also have to gauge how bad & how long the downturn will last, Great Depression?, 2008? Jimmy Carter?

Automobiles are MOST DEFINITELY not recession resistant. I would also stay away from almost EVERY lender (pawn shops excepted). Luxuries probably will not do well.

If you have a hard time deciding, try and find an old copy of Valueline. They will show you 20 years of ROE.

If you still can't decide, remember, it is VERY difficult for companies to go bankrupt that DO NOT HAVE DEBT. Look for a company that has a STRONG balance sheet.

Hope this helps.

Firearms. When unemployment goes up, so does crime. John Q. Public gets scared and starts packing heat. Combine this with the threat and reality (in some states) of new gun legislation and it's a booming market. The manufacturers can't make them fast enough.

Pawn shops are also doing well because of the demand for guns and high price of precious metals, but there is a bit of market saturation.

Safes and security systems are also selling well. Locksmithing is a great trade.

Gambling is not recession proof, especially big time gaming at casinos. While there are addicts who will gamble anyway, these businesses depend greatly on the occasional visitor with disposable income. This shrinks in a recession. Small-time gambling, such as scratch-off tickets and lotteries, probably remains consistent.

Prostitution

I've come to believe that downturns are a good time to start a small business if you can provide a service that is more affordable than the big guys offer.For example, if you could start a business changing people's oil in their driveway, I'd say that would be in demand. If it is allowed per zoning, etc. I know I'd pay the going oil change rate ( about $23) to have someone come to my residence to change oil if meant I only needed to hand them the cash and have them not leave any oil spots in the driveway. Actually, I'd like to have a regular mechanic in general on call who could fix my car instead of me having to go to the shop and schlep the traffic and all that. But that is not feasible because shops need all the tools and lifts in them for repairs.

In lean times, people are looking to save money. Laughing out loud, but you could probably create a regular clientele list of people who would pay you a small premium to bring $25 bricks of pennies to them weekly. You could also expand and sell them silver with a small premium. I think we talked about something like this before and security concerns were the over-riding thing. Developing a list of CRH clients might be tricky because if you advertised, you'd have to be aware of scammers and maybe competitors(!!) who would deter you.

I know this is an old thread but one item that occurred to me as a fairly recession proof business is storage lockers (I.e., U-Haul and Public Storage).

Hawkeye wrote:Also, I would say that any kind of repair would be in higher demand in a recession/depression. Car repair, appliance repair, etc. When the money is rolling in and the washing machine starts making noise, you pay $800 for a new one. When money is tight, you pay $150 to get the old one fixed. Just my 2 cents.

I agree.