vignettes of recession - 1

my experience with recession had been only theoretical; until tonight. my wife insisted to eat outside and we went straight to our latest favourite 'mumbai buffet' near silent street. we started at about 8pm and streets in the town centre were deserted beyond belief; i was aware it was monday and people don't generally return to pubs and places immediately after weekend. but the thing that did upset me most was the scale of the impact global economic slowdown is having onthe local businesses. take for instance, there is a posh bar near st.nicholas street called 'tonic' where one would normally find handsome number of customers; but it was virtually empty save a couple of tables. after passing by 'tonic', another surprise, the only truly spanish 'tapas' restaurant - closed, locked, not sure if permanently or for only monday. 'pals' one of ipswich's top attractions for joy makers, was silent and bartenders looked amazingly at ease. i remember the hayday of nightlife when i first came to britain during june 2006; it was never so bad until late 2008 when tide turned against local businesses. finally when we entered mumbai buffet, guess what, we were the only customer they had. wow, 8:30pm and none but 1 pair of people !! i did a small mental calculation, if they would have 15 customers tonight; that wouldn't exceed 200£ mark. assuming they have golden figure of food industry, 100£ would be pure profit. if they had 3 waiters, 2 cooks, and a manager, everyone would end up getting peanuts !!! after an hour of dinner; only 3 other people made themselves comfortable at the restaurant, taking it to 5 people till 9:15pm. i constantly looked outside the window glass, a taxi driver waited (as though in anticipation) of customers from 'pals' and other pubs and bars for at least 30 minutes, a customer turned up, and the taxi was back at the same spot in 5 minutes. i remember there was a second taxi also waiting in the queue, but its driver would have thought his chances were bleak, he left without a customer. recession is hitting hard, hard enough to make it perceptible. businesses which were known to work have started to crumble under customers' new appetite to save money.