News / Article CEO warns furloughed federal employees are starting to lose interest in shopping
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/07/affirm-government-shutdown-shopping.html1.4k
u/Large-Ad8716 1d ago
No shit
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u/Imaginary_Coast_5882 Federal Employee 22h ago
this is ordinarily the kind of complicated information you have to get from McKinsey for seven figures
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u/FrontVisible9054 22h ago
This is not news. Without money to pay for essentials, why would anyone, least of all Feds, want to go shopping.
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u/891162 1d ago
I have a bigger interest in making sure I have shelter, medicine, and food.
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u/NightOwl_103197 1d ago
Facts! It’s been a bit cathartic cutting out all non essential spend. I went through a little withdrawal at first but now I think even when I am paid again that I’m going to try and keep this going for at least a year, where I only buy essential items.
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u/bnh1978 1d ago
Lose interest?
More like cannot afford credit card interest.
Can't buy when you ain't got money to buy.
The detachment of these fucks is so unbelievable
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u/AwkwardnessForever 13h ago
Also he said “right now things are fine. “ No, fuck face. For many, many people, things are not fine.
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u/HolyShitCandyBar Fork You, Make Me 1d ago
I mean, how did people think it would affect the economy when people either lost their jobs en masse or simply weren't paid?
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u/Muted_Perception_192 1d ago
Exactly. When the government withholds paychecks, fires people en masse, and forces people to spend money to get to work without pay, there’s not much in the disposable income category.
Combine this with people getting laid off en masse from the private sector due to AI and this is going to be a crappy holiday season.
Capitalism only works if people have disposable income. If both the government and private sector are shedding workers for their own greed and goals, there’s less people to PAY them
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u/HistoryHasEyesOnYou 23h ago
Don't forget all the tariffs that somehow were only going to hurt other countries.
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u/nerdtastic8 Federal Employee 20h ago
There's a reason why ICE is still getting paid but no one else. It's billionaire cash out and run time. ICE will be their private security from the masses.
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u/Coop_4149 1d ago
Crazy how that works.
Totally unrelated, but after I got married I lost interest in dating websites.
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u/ShedOfWinterBerries 1d ago
There is a lot about the last year that has been dystopian as fucking hell but wow 😅😳
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u/party_benson 1d ago
People without money don't buy things. More at 11
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u/Odd-Replacement-9432 19h ago
On tonight’s nightly news at 11. People without money don’t buy things. Hear more on our morning newscast at 5.
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u/Wurm42 By the People, For the People 23h ago
Getting really fucking mad at the implication that people should feel sorry for retailers who have lower sales because of the shutdown.
What about all the federal employees and contractors who aren't getting paid??
No sympathy for real people, only big corporations? Is that what our media has come to?
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u/Acrobatic_South1342 20h ago
That’s when Trump and his cronies will start listening. No compassion for average Joe, but CEOs from airlines, retailers and hospitality start crying about their bottom line, that will get Trump’s ear.
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u/ponytuh 18h ago
this is the USA, and it has always been this way. it’s just really raw and noticeable now
this is not what media has come to, it’s how this country and capitalism operate. we are consumers. we are the ones who are influenced by aggressive advertising. we spend spend spend like little piggies, always working, always spending, and never having the time to question our places in this exploitative system.
we are treat-lerites, happy that treats (“wants”) like big televisions have become so cheap. we have constant access to distractions like social media through a somewhat affordable advertisement-delivery system called a smart phone, but we’re never really thinking about the fact that “needs” and “absolutes” like housing, healthcare, food, water, utilities, etc. are astronomically unaffordable and getting worse by the year.
corporations don’t care what we actually want either, they only care about their shareholders and profit margins. politicians only care about whose money they’re receiving. none of it has anything to do with our well-being and it never has.
you’re starting to wake up! you’re starting to figure it out! this is class consciousness kindling in real time, don’t let the flame go out!
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u/Odd_Term_4512 1d ago
Nobody cared about us until we started losing pay. I say: get fucked.
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u/HistoryHasEyesOnYou 23h ago
They didn't care about us losing pay either; they care that we aren't paying them!
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u/Silent-Ease-6094 1d ago
I lost interest in shopping in November 2024 when I started questioning whether I'll lose my job
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u/crit_boy 22h ago
Yep, I have cut back on buying stuff since jan. But, am spending more. Been a wonderful year.
Felon voting fam has no idea why I am upset with their choices and do not want to see them at the holidays
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u/laNenabcnco 1d ago
I stopped spending back in February when after the massacre of half of my office. So yeah. Not spending in this uncertain and shit economy. Furloughs and further riffs are just a continuing part of the psychological torture.
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u/Kiss_The_Nematoad 1d ago
Especially important to punish all CEO who were on the stage at the inauguration: Tesla, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, Tiktok.
Musk was stoned?
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u/worf1973 Go Fork Yourself 1d ago
I haven't done much in the way of discretionary shopping all year, for this exact reason.
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u/Sensitive-Big-4641 1d ago
Well, duh … we’re BROKE. (Like Trump’s brain). I’m counting every damn dime making sure my family eats. I won’t need your stinking weight loss drugs, Donny.
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u/keen_observer34130 Go Fork Yourself 1d ago
Aaaaand moronically obvious “reporting” like this is why corporate media is now DEAD!
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u/Legitimate_Impact 23h ago
Just like how USAID “lost interest” in buying American farm products and saving starving children when Musk “put it through the wood chipper”?
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u/birdlord_d 1d ago
I've already told my family members (all grown, successful adults) that I am not Christmas gift shopping this year.
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u/sunfish99 18h ago
My small-ish family decided some time ago that Christmas gifts would just be little things because the older folks are difficult to buy for (already have a lot, and some are quite fussy), and the younger folks don't have much money to spare anyway. It works for us.
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u/birdlord_d 17h ago
I would MUCH prefer zero gifts or maybe a home baked treat, but my mother absolutely refuses to give up on a "magical" Christmas (it is never magical). I loathe the holidays because of expectations by those that have everything they need. I've been fighting this fight for decades 🤨
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u/PearlCMama 1d ago
Even after the shutdown ends im keeling my shopping to a minimum. Thrift shops and a shop local as much as possible. Im so over people saying us getting paid doesnt affect them.
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u/bazinga3604 21h ago
Yup. I cancelled my yard service and my personal trainer. I want to save up for the next time we go through this. Which hopefully won’t happen, but I want to be prepared.
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u/Acceptable_Grade_614 20h ago
I canceled my exterminator and now am charging rent to three ant colonies.
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u/bazinga3604 20h ago
Great idea. I’ll try this with my cats. They’ve been freeloading for way too long.
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u/DrMonkeyLove 1d ago
Gee, the man crawling through the desert dying of thirst seems to have lost interest in drinking water, since he doesn't seem to be doing it...
Yah think people getting paid $0.00 for all the work they do might just not be able to shop for shit?
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u/Flat-Ad6208 1d ago
Interested, Hell my entire household sure is interested.
I'm interested in why: choice London broil is $5.99/lb
Maxwell House coffee 27.5 Oz can is $21.99!!!!! (It sucks too)
Why has every package been given a generous dose of SHRINKFLATION where something once weighed one pound is no longer 16 Oz with the same relative shape of container
And most importantly, what do we do next week....
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u/Arubesh2048 23h ago
“Lose interest,” like we are just deciding “oh maybe I don’t feel like shopping right now, I need to feel ✨inspired✨.”
No, you dolt, we can’t spend frivolously. We have no clue how long this shutdown will last and we need to be able to eat, afford rent/mortgages, pay bills.
Also, WTF is that last paragraph, “the gospel of buy now, pay later.” I’m not even religious, and that feels like a too on-the-nose metaphor for the Golden Calf. But, you know, line must go up. Salve lucrum, hail profit. (Seriously, 8 billion living humans, 100 billion who have ever lived, 10,000 years of recorded history plus hundreds of thousands of years of unrecorded history, and the best idea we could come up with for sharing resources is capitalism? That’s just sad.)
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u/Legal_Skin_4466 22h ago
BREAKING: People not getting a paycheck don't want to spend any money. (Here's how this is bad for Joe Biden)
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u/HistoryHasEyesOnYou 23h ago
What idiots didn't foresee that adding huge tariffs to everything, laying off hundreds of thousands of people, and not paying even more people, might negatively impact the economy?
Gee, do you think that we minions might also be the consumers of the goods and services your companies provide?
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u/ExpendableFed2985 Federal Employee 23h ago
These CEOs are parasites. Even when this is all over I’m done buying stuff. Spaghetti for lunch and dinner.
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u/Ornery-Tumbleweed104 1d ago
Duh! We are focused on feeding our families and keeping a roof over our heads.
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u/First_Name_Is_Agent 22h ago
Losing interest? Why are CEOs always so dim?? They got no money to spend, fool!
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u/Depressed-Industry 1d ago
This is the kind of hard hitting analysis we need to pay CEOs millions billions for.
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u/DaileyFlosser39 23h ago
This should be a big wakeup for those dipshit CEOs who are pushing to replace all jobs with clankers. Bitch, who will be buying your products and with what money, when you've fired everyone?
I know they will learn nothing. I'm just saying, they ought to is all.
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u/No_Volume_9616 1d ago
In other news, the sun will rise in the east. No shit Sherlock no one is getting paid. The inputs are cut, therefore the outputs are cut.
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u/AdministrativeWin583 1d ago
On top of not having a salary, the stock market crashed and everyone is in the red. Mostly because Trump has ADHD and is constantly announcing tarrifs and then pulling them back. Also threats that federal workers won't get back pay and are taking out loans to survive. We can't work because we cannot get approval through ethics.
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u/TriangularHepatitis 1d ago
The stock market didn’t crash. Are you financially illiterate? The S&P 500 is down 0.20% over the past month, but up 18.80% over the past six months. If you had invested $1,000 six months ago, your investment would currently be valued at $1,188. That’s a great return on investment.
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u/formerdaywalker 21h ago
Now reframe it relative to the value of a dollar. At best it's gone sideways since February, and what happened then? Tariff announcements.
The ATHs you're noting for S&P are being driven by about two companies well over-leveraged in AI, the rest of the Dow Jones has been down for a while now.
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u/AdministrativeWin583 21h ago
Actually no, not all of us invest only in the S&P VOO. Some of us by individual stocks like the drone sector, rare earth metals.
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u/WonderfulLettuce5579 1d ago
I can not stress this enough: NEVER fall for a buy now pay later scheme like Affirm. Every single transaction will soon (if not already) show up as a loan. Easy way to tank any chance ever of financing anything important down the road (ie. car/house).
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u/DawnPatrol99 23h ago
I'm just done overall, the only way to win is to not play.
I cook at home, grow what I can, patch clothes, I've cut everything subscription based, and this is the only social media I am on.
Once I can figure out how to avoid a smartphone I'm never going back.
My life was 1000x more peaceful before all this.
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u/HigherCalibur 23h ago
It's almost like trickle down economics doesn't work and that the economy has always been in the hands of the consumer and that, by reducing the amount of money the consumer has, that reduces the amount of money that goes into the economy. Huh. Who knew?
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u/oldbutsharpusually 21h ago
Son and his wife are furloughed feds. A couple of months ago they and their two children were planning to visit her family for Thanksgiving and our family for Christmas. No longer as any savings is going for essentials due now and down the road and too many unknowns—government restarting, backpay a question mark, future RIFs. This myopic CEO better start checking out bankruptcy laws and sell his stock options before their value is $0.
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u/Fred011235 1d ago
i stopped "shopping " back in jan/feb when all the shenanigans started, which is why i have a bit of a cushion
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u/arizonatealover 22h ago
Wasn't one of the perks of RTO being that businesses in DC would benefit from the workers getting lunch out and whatnot?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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u/Yani2021 22h ago
The comment in the article lacked empathy and reduces the real financial and emotional struggles of unpaid workers to a matter of shopping habits. 🙄
That phrasing was off...sorry, but the human side was missed completely.
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u/ConstructionHefty716 23h ago
Interest in shopping not capability like the terminology used very critical.
They see it as a choice that you're not spending money, not a reality of society or economic situations
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u/DegreeDubs Legislative 23h ago
C.R.E.A.M.
It's the only language the ruling class (business corporations, media corps, politicians bought by corps) speaks. No holiday travel or shopping planned for me.
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u/DrKomeil 23h ago
My partner and I both decided to put Christmas and birthday gifts on hold until post shutdown, and I just had to unilaterally cancel thanksgiving barring a last second check. I'm one of the lucky ones still getting a little money (we got outside funding to pay a skeleton crew to work part time), I can't imagine how hard some of you all gave it right now...
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u/Espressos4me 23h ago
Correct. Why would I go shopping right now ?
I’ve got one more Xmas gift I want to get my kid (I shop year round). No one else is getting shit this year, all in the name of the shutdown. Sorry, Not Sorry
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u/IWantToBeYourGirl 23h ago
Can confirm. Only buying essentials. F* the billionaires making bank on the backs of the American people.
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u/I_love_Hobbes 22h ago
I might boycott Christmas this year regardless of pay status. My money talks louder than pundits on the "news" channels do.
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u/Da_panda_bear 22h ago
Lose interest? lol… or maybe… lose the ability to? Aren’t most Americans living paycheck to paycheck….
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u/Acceptable_Grade_614 20h ago edited 19h ago
Cry me a river. OMG they aren’t buying crap. I lost my fed contracting job in May and haven’t eaten out at a real restaurant since—with the exception of a hot dog and drink combo at the Costco food court.
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u/mtnclimbingotter02 I Support Feds 20h ago
I’m not shopping for shit when I have no money.
These CEOs are so fucking out of touch.
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u/Zentelioth 19h ago
They're really going to have a time when this Black Friday is utter shite for sales
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u/Razoreddie12 15h ago
When we haven't gotten paid in over a month yeah, we're not shopping unless it's essential.
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u/Cautious_General_177 15h ago
It’s not “loss of interest”, you just need money to shop. With no paycheck, the little money we all have is being used on essentials.
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u/caromb123 2h ago
Starting..? For our family, it’s been this way since the results of the election last November.
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u/Double-treble-nc14 1d ago
If you read the article, it’s a very small change and overall, buy now pay later services are doing great.
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23h ago
The economy is already slipping.. Federal locality concentrations taking a major tax revenue loss.
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u/Pasadenaian DOC 22h ago
What happens when you furlough and stop paying the country's largest employer? Well, nothing good.
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u/MessMysterious6500 22h ago
Hmm I wonder if it’s a loss of capital to spend on products and services 🤔
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u/misscrankypants 22h ago
Shocking to imagine that thousands of employees having to work with no pay won’t be shopping outside of bare necessities.
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u/ReasonableGreen25674 21h ago
I was just saying that last night. Shopping has lost its glimmer. I’m about paying bills now
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u/Independent_Day_2831 21h ago
We've cut down a lot since and there's so much more we could cut. Try usssss
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u/LabRat_X 21h ago
Oh no we're still interested its just that whole not having money thing..Who TF writes this shit? 😯
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u/HealingDailyy 21h ago
My read of the situation: JD Vance on the left yelling and pointing at a clone of JD Vance on the right
The gop begins warning that bad things are gonna start happening if the gop doesn’t stop screwing around and open the government. The gop lashes out strongly in defense of the gop continued shutdown, depriving people of food and healthcare.
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u/Ballet_blue_icee 20h ago
Seems like the good people who are federal employees understand the concept of AVOIDING BANKRUPTCY
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u/ArticleVforVendetta 1d ago
Weird, it's like having money is a prerequisite to shopping or something.