This recession is fucking everything, completely agree, the population is getting wise to ways it can save money, cut corners, everyone is thinking about the last penny, whether they are skint or not, the rich want to make the same margins they're used to, the poor are poorer - everyone is looking for freebies. Look at the mainstream companies doing well (in the UK at least) -
Poundland,
TopCashback,
MoneySavingExpert (Massively popular), the holiday trade suffered massively this year because for the third year in a row people didn't have an additional £500, year 1 they spent that on a holiday, year 2 a tv because it broke, year 3 (this year) that £500 is more precious than anything, and the car just failed its MOT because you haven't spent anything on it in three years... what do you spend your money on?
I'm not saying the free tubes aren't hurting it further, but this is a fucked recession as bad as the 30's not comparable to the 80's, it's not ALL about the tubes.