There is little doubt in my mind that the economy is still going down hill. We have a number of major stores in our area that have closed their doors within the past two years and others are going to be shutting down very shortly. The people coming to fly fishing events are spending way less than they used to. The purchase of raffle tickets has gone down each year for the past 5 years. The bidding on silent auction items has greatly decreased so now the norm is one or two bids on items that usually would have had half a dozen bids at least. I don't blame shops for not carrying heavy inventories. If I owned a store I would carry only the items that I knew people had to buy right then, not a lot of items that may sit on a shelf for a year or so or that people can order off the internet if they don't mind waiting a while for shipping and such. It just isn't worth it. Larry ---sagefisher---