Disturbing Trend Picking Up Around the Nation - Americans' Recent Searches Say It All
A troubling trend in Americans searching for pawn shops online could signal how desperate people have become as inflation and other economic troubles have forced them to find alternate methods for getting their hands on quick cash.
Pawn shops are, of course, not an ideal way to trade goods for cash and are widely known to prey on those who are desperate for groceries, gas or other basics.
But in an economy where prices have risen drastically on everything under President Joe Biden’s watch, people might have nowhere else to turn.
The proof is in the Google search data.
An analysis of searches on the engine for “pawn shop near me” dating back to 2004 shows such inquiries have skyrocketed.
Last month, that search reached a rate surpassed only by July 2019, and in the first week of this month, it climbed past that point.
The top five states where people were most interested in the often predatory businesses were Texas, Nevada, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Searches for the terms “pawn shop open” or “pawn shop near me” also soared in the first week of July.
People in Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada, Alabama and Mississippi were most likely to reach for the terms.
Searches for “jewelry” and the video game retailer “GameStop” also have increased throughout Biden’s presidency. GameStop is notorious for offering people a handful of dollars for video games that originally sold for $60 or more.
While the results of these and other searches are not definitive evidence that economic hardship has fallen on people nationwide, Rick Harrison of the show “Pawn Stars” explained last year that he had seen some troubling trends in his own Las Vegas-based pawn shop.
“Gas prices are killing people, just the price of food has gone,” Harrison told Fox News last August. “[Inflation] has gone nuts, and I really believe lower-income people it affects much worse than it affects upper-income people.”
Since that interview, searches for pawn shops on Google have more than doubled.
Pawn shops are likely to offer people significantly less than any given item they present at a counter might be worth.
Some of that stands to reason as the business has to carry the risk of the item not reselling or the potential it might sit on a shelf for a significant amount of time.
Most criticisms of the business model rest on high-interest loans people take while pawning items such as precious heirlooms, jewelry and firearms for a fraction of what they are worth.
They pay these loans or forfeit the item they put up as collateral.
In any event, Americans are struggling under an administration that prioritizes the interests of the so-called elites over the people who need relief.
As a result, it appears many people are turning to pawn shops as a last-ditch, desperate attempt to cover their bills or basic expenses.
Like so many other indicators of the state of people’s individual financial circumstances, a sudden interest in pawn shops is a sign of the times in which we live.
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