Reductions in retail foot traffic may signal continued tough times ahead for restaurant chains, which are mainly dependent upon shopping mall exposure for gaining customer volume. Many large restaurant chains, including Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, and Ruby Tuesday, have significant presence in retail shopping malls. These dining establishments are certain to experience continued weak sales figures as consumers restrain their discretionary spending.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, ShopperTrak RCT Corp. indicates that sales figures for restaurants declined over 12% for the month of October, in comparison to last year.

Although restaurant sales projections appear fairly grim, the food service sector is not nearly ready to give up the fight.

That's because of the free Web access. Apple computers, being cutting-edge, are much less useful without internet access, so its dozen-odd floor models are eternally connected to the Web. That's where the kids come in.

A decade ago, when fewer people had their own computers, if you wanted to get online when you weren't home, you had to go to an internet cafe. But today, moneyed people tote Blackberries and wifi-enabled laptops, so the American internet cafe is all but dead. Except that many high school kids are too young to have jobs and usually don't have their own laptops. So they can't get online at Starbucks or Panera Bread, like the rest of us. They go to the Apple Store, where they can borrow the computer without charge or time limit.

That's attraction enough for those too young to have private Web access (and for those with prying parents back home). But then there's the fact that most Apple computers now come with built-in cameras. Lots of kids are hitting the Apple Store just to take shots of themselves with the webcam. Facebook will take and post a shot of you directly from your profile page. In fact, one Michigan teen just started a new Facebook group called "I Only Go 2 The Apple Store To Take Photos and Put Them On Facebook." There are already 68 members.