<p>I can definitely see the effect this is having on sort-of-unrelated industries.</p>
<p>I bus tables at a chain restaurant with $10-$20 entrees, and all of us there have noticed a decline in customers over the past year. In our middle class town, a restaurant like ours is more of a “special occasion” kind of place, or somewhere to go maybe once or twice a month. But now, even for that kind of thing, I think we are too expensive for economy-weary residents.</p>
<p>I’m just glad I have a job for this summer, though. Hardly any of my friends have been able to find one, and I only got this one because I worked there last summer.</p>