"I can't believe I have to do this to buy gas," says Carin Dillingham, pawning a Bulova watch
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke won't call what we're living through a recession. But at Society Hill and other such shops - where they measure economic misery in increasing volumes of pawned bling - they'll tell you that hard times are hard times
People are cleaning out their houses of gold, silver, whatever, to get money just to fill their cars with gas
"People are pawning out like crazy."
Business is up maybe 20 percent over last year.
Things are so awful, he said, he's getting loads of first-time customers.
I've got business owners coming in to pawn things just to make their payrolls
Increasingly these days, people are forced to pawn signficiant pieces - many of them obviously gifts - and are unable to pay back the loan.
Upper-income people are in pawnshops nowadays, needing money right away to meet payments
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