“The Home Goods Index”
Welcome to Wednesday, Futurists!
Our first sneak peek at our incredible speaker lineup for VISIONS Summit: Los Angeles is live on the event site. On the docket:
- Futurism
- Trendspotting
- The Aesthetics of AI in Horror and Fiction
- Worldbuilding
- And much, much more…
🎟️Few seats are still available, so grab yours now. Tickets are just $149, or you can save 20% with a membership to FC Plus. We’ll see you on October 10th at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater!
— Phillip
P.S. RFPs Suck Butt. Besides being a soul-sucking affair for all involved, there are hidden biases and entanglements between agencies, software, and brands that make the process of buying software nigh impossible. But they can suck less. Download a copy of our newest research at Future Commerce Insights to learn how.
P.P.S. The future of consumer is “omnimodal.” Whatever that means… learn exactly what we mean and why new research reveals opportunities for brand strategy on our latest episode of the podcast. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
We’re Number 2! (For Now). It took just two years for Temu to become the second-largest online retailer, just behind Amazon. The Pinduoduo-owned Chinese marketplace achieved the milestone in the same week that new legislation was introduced to rework the U.S. trade rule Section 321, which allows retailers like Temu and Shein to send packages to the US without duties or tariffs.
What’s not going away anytime soon? That damned earworm of a jingle.
Unhinged UI in Times Square. Designer, artist, and cultural critic Soren Iverson’s work was featured on a billboard in Times Square earlier this week. His work focuses on consumerism's humorous and horrific excesses by suggesting new features for popular apps like Uber, Doordash, and more. Figma sponsored the feature in Times Square as part of a rebranding campaign to spotlight artists, designers, and creatives using the software product.
🛒 You can buy Soren Iverson’s book, Can You Imagine, which documents 365 satirical interfaces online at the Future Commerce Print Shop. We ship Iverson’s book and many others worldwide to more than 200 countries.
The Home Goods Index. You’ve heard of the Waffle House Index or the Lipstick Index, but how about the Home Goods Index? Fashion and style blog Blackbird Spyplane has compiled a master index [gated] of brands, products, and goods that are sure to make your life more stylish.
Teach a Child the Way (To Target?) Ohio police discovered an 8-year-old girl had taken a family car and driven through busy roads to a nearby Target. Officers were alerted and quickly responded to the unusual scene, commenting they let her “finish her frappuccino.”
Our Take. We laugh, but this is the latest in a series of Target-centric youth-as-consumer stories that should cause us to worry. Our report on Mini Brands revealed a $4B product category that teaches brand affiliation to elementary-age children. The much-maligned Sephora Kids b-day parties showed us the signs. Target sells toy shopping carts. Trader Joe’s provides child-size carts for moms and toddlers to shop together.
Part of modern socialization is (necessarily and shockingly) teaching them how to be consumers.
The Great Rebrand of Salt. This week, sodium and potassium got the ‘glow-up’ when MrBeast and Logan Paul revealed their new Lunchables competitor, Lunchly. The rebranding of salt content to ‘electrolytes’ has created some outrage on social media, though the product is receiving praise from the venture capital community and proponents of the creator economy movement.
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