This is John Batchel, a conversation with my good colleague Jim McTagg, former Washington editor for Barron's

magazine, now a novelist in Lancaster County, watching for softening in consumer conduct. Consumers are a dominant

force in American GDP, 70% or more.

And the puzzle for some time is, will they stop spending?

Because if they do, the economy contracts a little, just a little.

However, there has been no sign of it until Jim reports from a mall near his home, Lancaster County, and reports very carefully about what this means

for the immediate future of the consumer, perhaps the economy of Lancaster County, perhaps the

economy of the Keystone State, perhaps nationally. He calls it pressure points, stress fractures, watching for little signs of a slowdown.

Jim McTay, more of this tonight.

So, for example, I go to Park City Mall, which is owned by Brookfield Properties.

I saw 13 empty storefronts.

Now, if you go to the Brookfield website, they're only

advertising one vacant property, 8,000 square feet for a restaurant. But again, I saw 13, including

the former Forever 21 store. That chain went out of business in June. So the fact that people left the mall,

even if they have new people lined up, tells me that business is not great. In other parts of the

county, I see the same situation. There's a little crossroads shopping area, six miles from my house. Suddenly there are three vacancies, three retail businesses, gave up. They gave up the ghost.