Is there really recession and economic slowdown?

Crowd at Avenues Mall, Kuwait

This is the crowd one sees at a shopping mall during what is considered to be times of economic slowdown.  This scene may be common to any place in the world.  Retail outlets do great business, cinema halls are full, amusement parks continue to attract crowd, people keep undertaking vacation travels to exotic locations and buying trendy clothes and state of the art electronics never seems to stop.

If this is slowdown, then what will happen when the economy recovers?  (Thanks to my friend T P Anand, Dubai for this interesting thought)