Fourteen Dollar Item Tells Construction Economy's Tale

Where did you buy your last hard hat? W. W. Grainger, Inc.? Probably. That fourteen dollar item is as telling a measure of the miserable state of the construction sector economy as anything the Ph.D. economists may take into consideration. Lake Forest, Illinois based Grainger reports its 2009 August sales are down 13% compared to August 2008. Grainger, with annual sales of $6.9 billion last year, is one of the world's largest sellers of such products in the U. S., Canada, Mexico, India, China and Panama. As Grainger goes, so goes the construction economy.