9 Businesses That Thrive in Recession

7,000 people

Some people chose to hunt for their food. Some people harvested their own bees to make honey. Other people went to soup kitchens, which are places where people can go and get a free meal. Since many people needed a free meal during the Depression, they often had to wait for hours in long ‘soup lines’ to be served.

Introduction to “The Great Depression.” White bread cost $0.08 per loaf during the depression. A Jumbo Sliced Loaf of Bread cost $0.05 during the depression.

We’ve looked into recession-resistant products businesses can sell online that will remain economically evergreen:

• Clothing. Even during an economic downturn people still need clothes, kids don’t stop growing!
• Sweet stuff. Everyone loves a chocolatey pick-me-up on a stressful day!
• Baby products.
• Pet care.

• Accountants.
• Healthcare Providers.
• Financial Advisors & Economists.
• Auto Repair and Maintenance.
• Home Maintenance Stores.
• Home Staging Experts.
• Rental Agents & Property Mgmt.
• Grocery Stores.

It is a little known fact that more millionaires were made during The Great Depression than in any other era in U.S. history. It is important to know that the Great Depression actually started a few years before the 1929 stock market crash and lasted until World War II brought the country out of the Depression.

One group that had to deal with drastic changes during the depression was the middle class. This group accounted for 15 to 20 percent of Americans at this time. The collapse of the stock market and the closing of more than 5,000 banks mostly affected the middle class.

When the banks were allowed to reopen, nearly 1,000 banks had been saved. On January 1, 1934, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established, and since that time, not one depositor has lost insured funds.

The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn that began in 1929 and affected the U.S. for the next decade. During the first four years of the crisis, 11,000 banks became insolvent and many consumers and businesses lost all of their savings.

Deflation increased the real burden of debt and left many firms and households with too little income to repay their loans. Bankruptcies and defaults increased, which caused thousands of banks to fail. In each year from 1930 to 1933, more than 1,000 U.S. banks closed.

By the dawn of the next decade, 4,340,000 Americans were out of work. More than eight million were on the street a year later. Laid-off workers agitated for drastic government remedies. More than 32,000 other businesses went bankrupt and at least 5,000 banks failed.

Between 1929 and 1933, construction of residential property fell 95 percent. Repair expenditures decreased from $50 million to $500,000. In 1932 between 250–275,000 people lost their homes to foreclosure.