I don't mind the diversion, as long as I can eat popcorn and peruse some power tools. But I have to concur with RealMoney.com columnist Glenn Curtis, who this week, after an apparent whirlwind shopping vacation, described retail as an "industry in trouble."

The last time I stopped at Connecticut's Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets, I could have blasted a cannon down the sidewalks and not hit anybody. And we didn't do much buying, either. The upscale shops didn't seem to offer as much value as they once did, or perhaps we've simply gotten more discriminating in unsteady economic times.

In A Shopaholic Tours Six States and Returns Depressed, Curtis described finding empty outlets, deep discounts and clearance sales. He listed eight stores and offered his impressions of each.

Sears (S:NYSE - news - commentary)? Generally, I jeer at Sears, and visits to three locations left Curtis concerned that its same-store sales could be in trouble. He was likewise unimpressed with AnnTaylor (ANN:NYSE - news - commentary) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF:NYSE - news - commentary).

His favorites? Talbots (TLB:NYSE - news - commentary), Home Depot (HD:NYSE - news - commentary) and Old Navy, owned by Gap (GPS:NYSE - news - commentary). I have to say I haven't visited a Talbots in a while, and I religiously avoid the nearest Home Depot because only about one-third of its registers are ever open and the checkout lines are long. But I agree on Old Navy.

Friends from Canada visited New York recently, and their daughters, ages 15 and 16, seemed as excited about the Old Navy store near Penn Station as they did the Empire State Building. Once inside, I was in charge of chaperoning the 15-year-old, and I was nearly trampled by mobs of young shoppers snapping up ridiculously cheap bathing suits.

I'm going to barbecue at my in-laws' this last big weekend of summer, with a mandatory shopping stop along the way. I hear there are big Labor Day sales at Clinton Crossing.

Say Cheesecake

Another thing I enjoy, along with shopping, is eating. And I was distressed this week to read Herb Greenberg's piece about insider selling, Greasing the Skids for Restaurant Stocks.

One of my favorite mall dining spots, Cheesecake Factory (CAKE:Nasdaq - news - commentary), was on Herb's list. He discovered that David Overton, the company's CEO, recently sold 100,000 shares.

Wrote Greenberg, "Follow the money, and if insiders are selling, so should you."

Uncle Ben's Strife

He's at it again. Ben Stein is getting readers in a tizzy, this week with his modest proposal that Stocks May Not Beat Cash and Bonds Long Term.

Stein, who recently joined RealMoney.com as a featured columnist, took a position contrary to the common belief that stocks are almost always a wiser investment than lower-yielding issues. In fact, Stein said quite the opposite: Long-term results often show that the stock market is not better than cash or bonds.

In a marvelous summation, Stein tied a neat bow around why people cling to stocks when he says they would often be better off investing elsewhere:

"Then why do investors -- including yours truly, who certainly owns stocks -- continue to allow stocks to remain at such a high level? I think it has to be that last giant bubble -- and specifically a deluded hope that the bubble will return soon.

"The '90s were the psychedelic era for stocks. There is no precedent for their return in most of our lifetimes. But we still keep hoping that the bubble will return -- and then we'll sell.

"Philip DeMuth, the noted investment psychologist, puts it in a thought-provoking way. As DeMuth sees it, investors who lost big in the tech debacle often cannot bring themselves to sell because that would mean final recognition of their folly in getting in on the wrong side of that bubble. Not only that, but if they sold after colossal losses and the stocks did by some miracle rebound, they would be suicidal. Thus, they refrain from selling because of a combination of fear that they will be wrong again and denial of the finality of the end of the bubble.

"Through the prisms of fear or just plain self-delusion, investors see hope and keep on buying -- a hold is the same as a buy, as Roy Ash taught me long ago -- and the market stays at startlingly high levels relative to historic norms. Unless the law of reversion to the mean has been repealed -- always a risky bet -- these investors, myself included, are likely to feel more pain."

The Way to San Jose

Jim Seymour kept readers abreast -- and his editor oh-so-busy -- with interesting filings from the Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - commentary) Developer Forum.

Among other things, in Intel Developer Forum Marks New Pricing Model, Mr. Tech Savvy reported that the chipmaker is giving up margin to get consumers buying again. The unheard-of prices for such speedy, powerful chips, Seymour wrote, are already having an effect on PC makers' prices.

In Intel Finally Joins the 'Wifi' Wireless-Networking Brigade, Seymour wrote that the company was abandoning its "HomeRF" standard for wireless networking to join the competing standard, 802.11b, corps.

Seymour's reaction: And only 100 moments too late!

Lastly, Seymour offered a two-part piece, Intel's Confused About What Buyers Want, in which he detailed the company's quandary: how to get us to buy fancy new gear when the stuff we're using now suits us just fine.