Kristen Schwab

It could also make it more expensive.

And mergers would give combined companies more power over the kinds of movies and shows that get made.

I'm Kristen Schwab for Marketplace.

We're seeing regular customers.

We know they're purchasing patterns and we come in and we see that they're scaling back.

Instead of buying a dozen cookies, they'll buy two.

The pattern started before the holidays.

So she's trying to cut costs.

She renegotiated prices with her packaging supplier.

She's cut down on some employees' hours, which means she's working more.

My husband and myself, we can be in this business anywhere.

Retailers right now are anxious because, says Sonia Lipinski at Alex Partners, consumers are anxious.

They're feeling full.

They're feeling poor.

They've really just been depleted.

The cold and snow that's hit a lot of the country has made it hard to think about, say, buying new shorts for spring.

Tariffs and inflation are still top of mind.

Plus, says Manini Vivek Horowitz, a marketing professor at NYU.

And that benefits both of us because they have a place to operate their small business and do these pop-up events.

And we have maybe new customers who have never been in the shop before, and hopefully they'll turn into a repeat customer.