As the country's economy journeys south, a handful of businesses are seeing their fortunes heading higher.

Businesses that provide short-term loans, pawn brokers and coin shops are among those thriving as consumers struggle to meet high gasoline and food prices on stagnant incomes.

Michael Morris pawned his air conditioner on April 21 at Hammond's EZPawn store when the temperature was hovering around 60 degrees. Morris, who works on the casino boats, said he would recover the item in a week or two when he had the money.

"I don't need it now," said Morris, adding that he was paid $15 for the air conditioner and expects to pay $20-$25 to get it back. "My costs are way up. Gas is gas is way up. I need the money. I needed the money now. Quick."

The Hammond EZPawn is one of almost 300 outlets in the pawn shop division of Austin, Texas-based EZCorp., which also operates a "payday" loan division, aptly named EZMoney.

No one from the company returned calls for comment, however its earnings release for the first quarter 2008, says EZCorp. saw its earnings climb 28 percent during the period to $13.016 million compared to $10.196 million for the same quarter in 2007.

Its total revenues for the quarter increased 27 percent over first quarter 2007, with signature loan revenues -- payday loan and credit service fees -- up 33 percent, pawn service charges up 32 percent and total sales (merchandise and jewelry scrapping) up 23 percent.

President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Rotunda stated it was the twenty-third consecutive quarter of year over year earnings growth.

"Our pawn operation was particularly robust while our payday loan operation was challenged with bad debt," he said in the earnings release. "To varying degrees and in different directions, I believe both segments are impacted by the stress our customers are feeling in this economic environment."

Locally-owned pawn brokers also are doing well.

Chris Lang, manager of the Merrillville Pawn King that also has an outlet in Portage, said "people are pawning like crazy."

"It seems like with gasoline the way it is, people need money," Lang said. "Pawn business is really steady. And people come here because they can't afford to spend money on something new. With the economy being the way it is, people have to make sacrifices some place."

Until the first of the year, Lang typically had three pages of pawn entries daily, with 10 entries per page.

"Now we're doing closer to five or six," he said.

Jesse Hoogeveen, owner of Hammond's J & J Coins, said his business of buying and selling gold, silver, jewelry, coins, stamps and precious metals is benefitting from the poor economy. Business has increased 100 percent in the last six months, he said.

"Unfortunately, yes," Hoogeveen said. "It's been going on longer than a year, and it's just getting worse. People selling their things....People are doing it because they need money, some lost jobs, some are doing it because the prices are high. I don't think business will change as long as the economy is bad."

Advance America/Cash Advance Centers Inc., one of the many cash advance payday loans companies flooding the country during the past decade, has locations in Hammond, Highland, Hobart, Griffith, Dyer, Merrillville, Chesterton, Lowell and Valparaiso. The South Carolina-based company made 77,000 more loans for an additional $52.7 million during the first quarter 2008 compared to the same year-ago quarter.

"Consumer demand for the traditional payday loan product remains strong," said Ken Compton, Advance America's president and chief executive officer in a Security and Exchange Commission filing."

However, the economy apparently took a toll on Advance America's collection of overdue loans.

The company says that the first quarter is historically its best opportunity to collect on outstanding balances and previously charged-off accounts "because customers typically receive their income tax refunds during this period."

But during this year's first quarter, the company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AEA, collected about 3.2 percent less of the previously charged-off accounts than in previous years.

"Losses generally continue to trend higher year over year and we believe the worsening economic conditions in the United States may be contributing to increased loss rates," it said in its quarter SEC filing. "Our loss experience this tax refund season did not improve to the same degree as past years."