You know I'm always such a big fan of the thoughts you bring up and I'm truly thrilled to hear that the trend churn is slowing. Sometimes I worry that it's only in the corner of the internet I occupy but it sounds like anti-trend is a larger trend. Again, thrilling.
Here's something that I'm stunned by. I am reading and experiencing the very real recession indicators. I'm rethinking my spending and my family budget is changing to keep up with rising grocery costs, etc. And yet, recently someone posted a poll asking their readers what they wanted to see more of and the answer was "shopping links." Are we all still shopping all the time but wanting affordable options? My instinct is to shop less but maybe I'm the anomaly. I can't make sense of it.
No, I live in Texas, very small community, and prices on everything are just blowing my mind. I am trying to stay away from certain things, like soda, chips, and looking at sale items only. Buying store brands because luckily the store brand is really good. Gas is going up, in my little town $2.67per gallon 45 minutes away and it is $2.87. I rethink everything, can my shoes last? can I just get a bang trim, stay away from malls, target, second hand shops except to donate items.
I think these people are living on credit cards. Reality doesn't hit until the bill arrives and even then, small amounts paid against balance is okay. People are not saving because things are going up and they can't afford to pay because their paychecks are not keeping pace.
You are not an anomaly, strange, poor, uneducated, or dumb. You are seeing thing as they actually are. You are one of the few actually. I think everyone is high and they haven't come down yet. We also are not being told the truth about the economy, you can post jobs that don't exist, and get scammed. The media isn't safe anymore. You have to find and research substack because so much is scary -the-world-is-ending stuff. I think there has been a recession for at least two years, that is what I am experiencing. You can cherry pick stats to bolster your everything is fine, but where it counts, grocery stores, mtg or rent payments, gas, eating out, doesn't lie. Hang in there.
I think there's maybe something similar happening to what's been going on re the issue of sustainable consumption...the so-called 'say-do' gap. Lots of studies support this, but as long ago as 2015 e.g. a major Nielsen study found that two-thirds of a massive global sample group said they were happy to/willing to pay more for brands that were running their businesses in more sustainable ways. But actual purchase behaviour was v different. The sustainable brands weren't growing the way they would be if this was actually happening. And the brands without a sustainable ethos (e.g. ultra fast fashion) were hockey-sticking.
It's prob not hypocrisy or virtue-signalling. It's prob cognitive dissonance...people do care and do want to see themselves as ethical/responsible, but in the moment the extra time/effort/money involved, and how hard it can be to decipher labels/messaging on packaging/materials etc, means a lot of us just default to our usual stuff. Loads of work being done on this ofc, but the intention/action thing is so interesting.
Re what you are seeing as a creator and an expert + also experiencing as a human: maybe we all still want shopping links bc shopping links are what we're used to and have come to enjoy most in our doomscrolly downtime (didn't Henry Ford apparently not-actually say that thing about 'if you asked ppl what they want most, it'd be a faster horse'?). So maybe creators can create even more interesting/innovative formats that satisfy that urge for newness/variety/inspo but without the shopping part. Maybe it's a lag/gap between our habits and our reality (perhaps economic pressure hasn't hit them (yet?), or heads are in sand, or cuts are being made elsewhere before fashion consumption is sacrificed?). And as you say maybe people just want to shop like they're used to, but more affordably - the equiv of trading down in grocery? It's so interesting. With your thriving community you are prob seeing all this from an angle that few can.
Is it really slowing down? Or has it sped up so much that trends now disappear as quickly as they arrive? When everything's trending, is anything really trending at all?
You know I'm always such a big fan of the thoughts you bring up and I'm truly thrilled to hear that the trend churn is slowing. Sometimes I worry that it's only in the corner of the internet I occupy but it sounds like anti-trend is a larger trend. Again, thrilling.
Here's something that I'm stunned by. I am reading and experiencing the very real recession indicators. I'm rethinking my spending and my family budget is changing to keep up with rising grocery costs, etc. And yet, recently someone posted a poll asking their readers what they wanted to see more of and the answer was "shopping links." Are we all still shopping all the time but wanting affordable options? My instinct is to shop less but maybe I'm the anomaly. I can't make sense of it.
No, I live in Texas, very small community, and prices on everything are just blowing my mind. I am trying to stay away from certain things, like soda, chips, and looking at sale items only. Buying store brands because luckily the store brand is really good. Gas is going up, in my little town $2.67per gallon 45 minutes away and it is $2.87. I rethink everything, can my shoes last? can I just get a bang trim, stay away from malls, target, second hand shops except to donate items.
I think these people are living on credit cards. Reality doesn't hit until the bill arrives and even then, small amounts paid against balance is okay. People are not saving because things are going up and they can't afford to pay because their paychecks are not keeping pace.
You are not an anomaly, strange, poor, uneducated, or dumb. You are seeing thing as they actually are. You are one of the few actually. I think everyone is high and they haven't come down yet. We also are not being told the truth about the economy, you can post jobs that don't exist, and get scammed. The media isn't safe anymore. You have to find and research substack because so much is scary -the-world-is-ending stuff. I think there has been a recession for at least two years, that is what I am experiencing. You can cherry pick stats to bolster your everything is fine, but where it counts, grocery stores, mtg or rent payments, gas, eating out, doesn't lie. Hang in there.
"everyone is high and they haven't come down yet" - love this
Love this Kelly. It's such an infernal question.
I think there's maybe something similar happening to what's been going on re the issue of sustainable consumption...the so-called 'say-do' gap. Lots of studies support this, but as long ago as 2015 e.g. a major Nielsen study found that two-thirds of a massive global sample group said they were happy to/willing to pay more for brands that were running their businesses in more sustainable ways. But actual purchase behaviour was v different. The sustainable brands weren't growing the way they would be if this was actually happening. And the brands without a sustainable ethos (e.g. ultra fast fashion) were hockey-sticking.
It's prob not hypocrisy or virtue-signalling. It's prob cognitive dissonance...people do care and do want to see themselves as ethical/responsible, but in the moment the extra time/effort/money involved, and how hard it can be to decipher labels/messaging on packaging/materials etc, means a lot of us just default to our usual stuff. Loads of work being done on this ofc, but the intention/action thing is so interesting.
Re what you are seeing as a creator and an expert + also experiencing as a human: maybe we all still want shopping links bc shopping links are what we're used to and have come to enjoy most in our doomscrolly downtime (didn't Henry Ford apparently not-actually say that thing about 'if you asked ppl what they want most, it'd be a faster horse'?). So maybe creators can create even more interesting/innovative formats that satisfy that urge for newness/variety/inspo but without the shopping part. Maybe it's a lag/gap between our habits and our reality (perhaps economic pressure hasn't hit them (yet?), or heads are in sand, or cuts are being made elsewhere before fashion consumption is sacrificed?). And as you say maybe people just want to shop like they're used to, but more affordably - the equiv of trading down in grocery? It's so interesting. With your thriving community you are prob seeing all this from an angle that few can.
Is it really slowing down? Or has it sped up so much that trends now disappear as quickly as they arrive? When everything's trending, is anything really trending at all?
I think that def was the case, but I think there are some signs that it could be changing.