The Game is On...

It looks like playing around is still popular in the current economy. GameStop Corp., the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer, on Friday reaffirmed its first-quarter and full-year 2009 profit guidance, citing strong sales of new video games and a successful launch of a new game system.

This place is where you can get your Wii, XBox360, Playstation3 and Nintendo from. And, of course, you can get all your game software needs met there, as well. The company operates more than 6,100 stores located throughout the United States and 17 countries, as well as GameStop.com and EBgames.com. 

The company claims that video games are recession-resistant but not unaffected by the downturn. The video game industry is growing, but it's being slowed by the recession.

However, it appears that overall, the game industry is down. 

It Looks Like Exxon and Walmart Are Going to Weather the Economic Storm Okay...

Well, the results of the 2009 Fortune 500 list are in, and the new number 1 is Exxon, having unseated the former champion, Walmart. 

In 2008, Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007. The company's annual profit was $45.2 billion.

Walmart took in $405.6 billion and posted a profit of $13.4 billion, which was a 5% increase in profit from 2007. 

Finding Money in Interesting Places...

Looking in the news today, here are two interesting places that profits are showing up:

H.J. Heinz Co., the number one ketchup maker, announced better-than-expected profits by raising prices and selling more soup and pasta. Apparently the foreign exchange rates reduced the amount of profits due to the strong dollar.

Thomson Reuters Corporation, the financial news and data provider, showed a 51 percent increase in profit after the their recent merger. Furthermore, they are expected to continue to grow in 2009. It’s good to know that peddling data seems to be recession-proof.

The Low Hanging Fruit...

Ok, the first thing to look at is that there will be some obvious areas where spending will go up because of the current shift in the economy - the low hanging fruit. Let's go ahead and get those out of the way: 

• Bankruptcy attorneys will do well now. 
  
• There is a company that specializes in bankruptcy and other legal software: Epiq Systems. They are reporting that in 2008, their business doubled from 2007. 
• Car parts and car repair shops will do well now. I just spoke with a friend today who deals in car repairs, and he confirmed that the small shops are doing a booming business. First of all, people are getting their car repaired instead of purchasing a new one. Also, with the large car dealers going out of business every day, people have to go to the small shops to get their repairs done.
• Oil - yep, they seem to still be making plenty of profit. 
• Pre-paid legal - apparently that one is on the rise. I'm at a loss to explain that one, so I'll have to look into that. 
• Amazon.com reported it's fourth-quarter profit to be up 9% and was ahead of the forecasted profit. It seems that everyone did their holiday shopping there instead of avoiding the short lines at the shopping malls. 
• And even though toy sales were down, the good old childhood favorite - Legos - reported a 32% rise in profits. I suppose when the chips are down, the legos go up! As as aside, I did not realize that Lego is a family owned Danish company. Here is an article about it in businessweek

Next time, I'll be looking into to other areas where the spending is going in today's economy. For now, I just wanted to go ahead and pick the low hanging fruit.