10 Businesses That Are Thriving in This Bad Economy

People are always asking me, you tell us all the bad news, Michael, but is there anything good to talk about? Well, that's what today's video is going to be rooted in because I want to give you guys the 10 businesses that are thriving right now in a bad economy. Because I think it's indisputable at this point that this economy is not going very well for the vast majority of Americans. However, that doesn't mean that there's no opportunity and no businesses are doing well. In fact, it's quite the opposite. A lot of people think that when you hear bad economy, recession, all of this, that it means nothing but bad news. But in reality, there's always good news with the bad news, guys. So that's what we're going to do today. And I'm doing it from downtown Fort Lauderdale along the river walk here. I've always wanted to do a video here. And today, I have an excuse to do it because I came up here to see the Two Feet concert. Very cool music. Love the guy's guitar playing. If you haven't heard of it, check it out. Now, it is true that the economy isn't doing well and people are being forced to cut back on basically everything right now. But there are different types of businesses that thrive in this environment. And the businesses are doing well, ironically, because people are struggling. So that's the part that sucks about it. But hey, that's the American way, guys. That doesn't mean because somebody else is down on their luck, that means you can't take advantage of opportunities when they come up. Absolutely not. So the first business that's doing well right now is any sort of discount retail. And I think Walmart is the prime example of that right now. I did a video a couple of weeks ago that was tremendously successful talking about how Walmart is crushing it. And so are many other discount retailers due to people looking to save money, even people who earn well into the six figures. Walmart, they did about $680 billion in revenue in 2025. This makes it the largest retailer in the world. Their U.S. same store sales are still growing right now by 4% to 6% per year. And their grocery business has become their largest source of revenue because they offer up discount groceries and people are looking for that more than ever. And Walmart has repeatedly said over the past couple of years that they're seeing more and more people come in who make over $100,000 a year. And that typically was never Walmart's core customer base. And when even people who are doing well in this economy are looking for ways to cut costs and save money, well, that tells you everything you need to know about where things are headed right now. Just so you know, throughout this I'm giving you guys broad categories, but also giving you examples. So if you want to start a business, for example, you can find a way to take advantage of some of these trends that we're talking about here. Now, the second type of business that's doing well right now are dollar stores. Now you could say this is also a type of discount retailer, but this is really as far down the ladder as it goes. These are the cheapest places that you can still shop right now. And Dollar General, for example, they did about $40 billion in annual revenue last year. And they have over 19,000 stores across the country. And their entire business model is built around low income consumers. And also the customers who are coming in, they're cutting back on basic items. They're buying smaller items and they're visiting stores more frequently, but spending less per trip. So this is an important thing to note from the dollar stores revenue disclosures, because what that shows us is that people who are coming in are operating on razor thin cash flow right now and need to figure out how to disperse every single dollar in an effective way. People are no longer stocking up. They're just buying enough to get through the week at this point. The third type of business that's thriving in this environment is discount grocery stores. Stores like Aldi, Costco, and Kroger, Trader Joe's, the stores that offer the lowest food prices out there, and Dollar General is sort of included in that category, are the ones that are doing the best right now. People are not eating out as much. That's why you've seen restaurants closing by the hundreds and a lot of them going out of business. And a lot of people are trading down from name brands at the grocery store down to store brands. People are trading down from premium stores down to discount grocery stores, and also buying less groceries per trip. Costco, for example, which is probably the most successful discount grocery store out there, they had about $250 billion in revenue last year, and their membership renewal rate was a solid 90 plus percent. And the reason why Costco is doing so well is because they're consistently lowering the cost per unit by offering bulk items that a lot of other grocery stores don't. And if you have a lot of people to feed, it's a very effective way to save money in this economy. Aldi is also pretty much the cheapest grocery store out there, and they're one of the fastest growing grocery stores in the United States right now. They're one of the few businesses that's still opening up locations, and they keep their costs extremely low by forcing you to pay a quarter in order to rent one of their shopping carts to incentivize you to return the cart. They don't have grocery baggers, and they only carry a very limited selection in order to keep their costs down. And this shows us, because people are cutting back on restaurants and all the discretionary spending, they're cooking more at home and trying to do it as cheaply as possible. And these days, Aldi is actually a very great option to buy a lot of healthy organic food. I watch Bobby Parish's channel. A lot of you guys probably have seen him at some point. He does all the grocery shopping videos and things like that. And he shows, like, look, you can get some really good stuff there now, versus when I was a kid, everything they had was subpar quality. But now that's not the case anymore. Now those are like the top three, the big type of businesses that are hard for the average person to break into. Now we're going to get into some of the categories where you could actually take advantage of this if you wanted to start a business. Number four is tax preparation. This could be something like starting this as a side hustle, or even going all the way through getting a CPA, really doing it as a solid business, right? Why is tax preparation doing good in a bad economy? Well, oh, thanks, man. You watch? You want to say hi real quick? Sure. What's your name? Matt. Matt. Nice to meet you. Yeah. I'm Michael. Good to meet you, Michael. Thanks for watching, man. Appreciate it. What do you like about my channel? I moved down here a couple of years ago, and I love kind of just watching you walk around the area, but also obviously learning about the... I'm in the mortgage industry here. Okay. So, you know, learning about the housing market, kind of what's going on, and just appreciate the updates on the economy and kind of your take. Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate you watching. Of course. Thanks for stopping to say hello. Yeah, of course. I can't believe I just saw you. I know. I'm never here. This is my first time here, so I wanted to do something different. Miami, right? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Great to meet you. You too, Matt. I appreciate it, man. Of course. All right. I'll see you around. Thanks for watching, guys. Thank you. All right, Matt. Take it easy. You too. Well, that was cool. Shout out to Matt. Glad that he stopped and said hello. I always love when people who watch the channel stop me and just say a quick hi, guys. It's always nice. Feel free to do it if you ever spot me in the wild. Now, back to tax preparation. That industry generated about $16 billion in revenue last year. And one of the reasons that tax preparation is becoming a very successful business is because there's more and more people who are self-employed. Particularly, you have a lot of gig workers now and small businesses who need help with tax preparation. And once you go from working just a regular W-2 job to working anything where you're going to get a 1099, your taxes instantly get more complicated. And a lot of times you're going to need help. And so, because there's so many people working for Uber and DoorDash and doing freelance work and starting online businesses, things like that, and one job just isn't enough, it makes it more difficult to do taxes. And so, people need help with it. And so, that's something that basically anybody can get into right now. And that's something that's going to be around forever because you know the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes. Number five is auto parts stores. AutoZone, for example, they did over $17 billion in revenue last year and their store sales are remaining strong. And here's the key stat. The average age of vehicles in the US is now over 12 and a half years old, which is an all-time high. And the reason for this is people can't afford to buy new cars. In fact, a lot of people can't even afford to buy used cars anymore. I talked about this a few days ago. The monthly payments are simply getting too expensive and people are starting to maintain what they already own and fixing everything they can themselves and trying to get repairs done as inexpensively as possible. Maybe you go and pick up your parts at the auto parts store and then you do the repairs yourself or you have a friend who knows stuff about cars come over and help you and you buy dinner. That's going to cost you a lot less than taking it to a mechanic. Number six is pawn shops. I talked about this a few days ago as well. Pawn shops are exploding in business right now. And this one really shows you what's going on out there. Pawn shops, they do about $3 billion a year in revenue. So definitely one of the smaller ones on this list, but still lots of out there to go around. The reason for it, people are pawning jewelry, people are pawning electronics, tools, instruments, the same old stuff in order to get short-term cash. And oftentimes you have regular customers, people that will come in and pawn the same items over and over in order to actually continuously get short-term loans. And they're very fast, right? Because at a pawn shop, you don't have to get a credit check. You don't need income verification, nothing like that. And just something I've observed here, just walking down this river walk is I've never been down here before. And already I've probably seen at least a dozen homeless people hanging around. They're not doing drugs out in the open like in California. They're just hanging around. But you can see that the homeless situation is very visible here. I normally don't see that many homeless in Miami Beach where I live. So that just shows you sign of the times there. People are having a hard time right now and more and more people are going homeless. But anybody who's looking to start a new business right now, starting a pawn shop or getting into that line of work somehow can also be an opportunity in this environment. Number seven is debt collection. One of my viewers, Alan, he regularly writes me emails a few times a year, giving me updates about what's going on in debt collection business. And every time I hear from him, he's like, we've never been busier. We need more people. We need more locations. If you need a job right now, debt collection, guys. Is it glamorous? No. I mean, it kind of sucks, right? You are hunting people down who are not paying their bills is the job. So it definitely takes a certain type of person to be able to do something like that. But just one debt collection agency alone, Encore Capital Group, they bring in about 1.3 billion per year. And every time credit card delinquencies go up, which is basically every quarter now, their business goes up. And when people stop making payments, their business goes up. You default on electric bills long enough. You don't pay old medical bills. You don't pay credit card bills. You're not paying private student loan debt. You're going into collections. And right now the delinquency rates on all forms of debt has been skyrocketing. So this is a big problem. That means that more of this debt is being sold to collection agencies. And that's exactly how these companies make money. Number eight, self-storage. This is something I was thinking about doing a whole video on. You guys can let me know in the comments if you want to see that or not. Definitely outside of my typical wheelhouse, but something different. Public storage. This is a storage company. They generate about four and a half billion dollars annually. And occupancy rates are extremely high right now. You would think, well, in a bad economy, why are storage units doing well? Well, people use storage units when they are forced to move, often with an eviction or a foreclosure situation. So you have to do something with your stuff, or you're forced to downsize to a smaller property, or when people are combining households, right? If you have six or eight people living in a three-bedroom house in order to save money, well, people have to put their stuff somewhere. Yeah, of course you're going to have people that use it just because they need extra space and they just don't have enough room for all of their stuff. That's traditionally what it's been used for. But the more people that have to shack up with each other, the more people who lose places and foreclosures and evictions, they have to do something with their stuff. And unless they're completely broke, they're going to use a storage unit before they just let all their stuff go. Also, we've seen an uptick in people who are actually living in storage units. There's been lots of viral videos online showing how people are getting away with living in storage units for months at a time. And even though it's not something that's typically allowed, but people try to do it and they get away with it for quite a long time until they get caught. We're talking, people set up whole little apartments in there with television, mattresses, different things, like little kitchenettes. And it's a very inexpensive way to be off of the street if you can get away with it. And like I said, this video is about the good news, about the good business opportunities that are out there. These opportunities all exist because the economy is not doing well. Number nine is something you probably wouldn't think of, but it's equipment rental. United Rentals, they do about $15 billion in annual revenue and still growing. And this is a great way for businesses to take advantage of using equipment that they might need without making the big upfront investment. This is a good business for both sides of the equation, right? The rental business makes money on renting out their equipment and business owners who are trying to start maybe a small excavation business or a small concrete business, something like that, you can rent those expensive heavy machinery pieces on a daily or weekly basis without a long-term commitment and not having all the expenses that come with maintenance and repairs, but still being able to get your foot in the door with a business. And it ultimately helps businesses who need this machinery be flexible. And there's all different types of rental businesses out there, guys. It's not just heavy machinery. For example, when I go to California each year, I rent some furniture in order to keep my storage unit light so I don't have to get a huge storage unit and have an entire huge apartment's worth of stuff in storage. I rent some of the furniture in order to keep my costs down as well. And it's convenient. They come out, they deliver the furniture. If there's a problem, they'll come and replace it. And they come and pick it up when I leave. And just about anything these days can be rented. I've seen people renting out musical instruments. I've seen people renting out electronic hardware, pretty much anything you can think of that somebody might need on a short-term basis. And that's kind of a side hustle anybody can get into. And once again, no matter what you're renting out, it's helpful because people don't have to make the upfront investment. They can just rent it for a few hours or for a few days. Now, number 10 is one that I hate to say it, but it is the truth. And you could make some money if you wanted to get into this business. And that is insurance. Okay. And it's number 10 on the list for a reason, because I just think insurance companies are complete crooks these days. But they make a lot of money, guys. Just Progressive alone, they made $60 billion a year in revenue. Premiums have been continuing to skyrocket. We all know that. Insurance is a requirement if you drive a car. Insurance is a requirement if you have a mortgage. And people still buy a lot of optional insurance, like health insurance, renter's insurance, different things like that. So the insurance business is going nowhere but up. And I think it's going to continue like that forever until they lose enough of their customers. But for now, it's still going well. And so people who are struggling to find a job could be looking at getting a job in the collections industry where there's a lot of demand for it. And it's good to be open to all these options that I'm talking about here. Workers have seen their current pay satisfaction just drop through the floor. The New York Fed, they've been keeping track of people's satisfaction with how much money they get paid since 2014. And even though more people than ever are not satisfied with how much they make, they're sticking with their jobs because they're afraid they won't be able to find another one. Right now, the amount of people who are satisfied with how much they make is sitting at only 52.3 percent. And last November, it was over 55 percent, which is the lowest level since the New York Fed started keeping track back in 2014. And for low-income workers, it's only 31 percent of people satisfied with the money that they're making right now. People are also not satisfied with the promotion opportunities that are out there, which are basically none at this point. Some people can get promotions, but even when they're offered, they're not as big of promotions as people were hoping for, especially with the increase in pay. But the fear of losing a job has really spread across all sectors of the workforce right now. ADP, they just did a survey of over 39,000 workers across 36 countries, not just here in the U.S. And less than 25 percent of people are confident that their job is safe, which means more than 75 percent are worried about losing a job. Not a single country in their survey had more than a 38 percent feeling of job security, guys. That's pretty bad. That shows you that it's not just the U.S. in trouble right now. The entire global economy is feeling the pinch right now. Only 35 percent of C-suite executives feel secure right now. AI, of course, is amplifying all these fears and making it worse, whether it's legitimate or not. What I think should be the biggest wake-up call is just the sheer amount of layoffs that we've seen happen across different businesses, guys. Oracle was the most recent one with 30,000 layoffs. But all the time, you guys send me stories of much smaller ones, you know, like Snapchat. They're getting rid of a thousand people, right? That's nothing compared to Oracle. Still a thousand people who are losing a job. So this is happening constantly right now. So much to the point where I don't even report on it half the time anymore because it's just going to be too redundant. And here's the thing you might not realize. The fear of losing a job can be even more damaging than actually losing a job because you're constantly worrying about what kind of impact that's going to have on your life and your well-being. And that can hurt you just as much as actually losing the job. This can lead to things like mental health decline, physical health issues, as well as strained relationships. It also reduces productivity in the workplace. This is bad for businesses as well. Some CEOs are of the mindset that fear motivates workers to do a better job so they don't lose their job. But the research apparently shows the opposite. It shows lower productivity, reduced creativity, and worse workplace relationships. And it also creates a situation where people make more mistakes and have more accidents because they're worried. You know, think about it just like if you want to perform something that you're good at in front of people. If you are worried about doing a bad job, you're probably going to do a bad job versus if you're not worried about it and you don't have any sort of expectation or consequence for doing a bad job, you're more likely to do well. But this leads to employees basically just doing whatever they can not to get fired and protecting their job and looking busy. And that's about it. You know, it really brings down the creativity. And the fear of becoming obsolete is real right now. It's not just people wondering, you know, when will I lose my job, but will my entire skill set become useless? Because you're seeing this happen. I'm going to give you guys a personal example here from somebody who watches my channel, who wrote me their own story. One of my viewers who didn't say if they wanted to be anonymous or not, so I'm not going to say his name, but he wrote me an email recently saying that he loves my videos and my genuine approach, which Matt just said the same. So I appreciate that, guys. I always am going to keep it the same way that it is right now. I mean, this is just me talking here. I don't do like a character on camera like some people do. This is just me. I'm the same guy on camera as you meet in real life. But anyways, I appreciate that. He's somebody who's been dealing with the difficult job market right now face to face. He earned a master's degree in data analytics, and he was working at Trader Joe's in a white collar tech job. He also has a military background. Before that, he's having a hard time securing stable employment right now. Him and his wife, they recently had a Tennessee for his wife's job, who is in the healthcare industry. So the good thing there is at least his wife has a job in literally the best industry to have a job in right now. The most in-demand profession is literally nursing and the entire healthcare industry right now. So at least she has stable work that pays well, which is good. But about a month after they made the move, he was laid off from his job at Trader Joe's. Since then, he says that he's applied to over 300 jobs over the past few months and has pursued everything from professional roles to just part-time work to stay afloat. He's even been turned down for small positions from places like Home Depot that pay only $15 an hour because he's overqualified. You hear that one a lot too. But thankfully, his wife still has a good stable job, so they're able to stay afloat, and he is taking on the role of being a stay-at-home dad. But constantly facing this level of rejection is very discouraging, he says. At this point, he says he's looking at maybe getting into a skilled trade job and completely changing directions, which you're seeing some people being forced to do and could be a good option right now. So it makes me feel good knowing that at least the things that I'm sharing here on the channel are helping him and a lot of other people like him. He says that this has definitely been challenging, but hearing different perspectives and different stories like I share here on the channel has helped him stay motivated and grounded to keep on trying. So I really appreciate him saying all that, and I hope you find a job soon. I know it's very tough out there. Nothing I can say here on this channel can force somebody to get a good job, but at least what I can do is give you guys a list like I did in this video of all the types of businesses that are doing well right now and different industries where there could be job opportunities or ways to start your own business to thrive and take advantage of this down economy, because there's always opportunity even when things aren't going well. So if you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to the channel. And if you don't want to wait for my next video to come out, check out this one on the screen right over here, and I'll see you in the next one.