This article posted on the Wall Street Journal takes a timely look at global consumer trends since the start of Coronavirus Lockdown. The information summarized discusses emerging trends such as activism, pride, and mobility that are heavily influencing how consumers are shopping as affected by the Coronavirus. This is especially interesting since some alignments are directly clashing against one another. For example, there is a trend of people being more air pollution-conscious as they see decreases in pollution across the board. However, there is an increase in single-use items in order to feel "clean" and "sanitized".
These trends themselves and effects on consumerism demonstrate ideas similar to what we identified in our class discussion from Energy Fables and how we continue to see consumptions and needs as products of comfort and vulnerabilities. I think this also ties in well with our understanding of defining and characterizing vulnerability in terms of income and how its situated in certain places and time frames. This will be especially interesting to see how these trends shift for the rest of the lockdowns and as countries begin to open up. How do economic theories such as income-effect become very prominent here? How will this affect larger corporate strategies and their attempts at supporting their consumers?
I think this article gives a strong understanding and trend forecasting for anyone that is potentially interested in doing their projects as related-effects to COVID-19 or consumerism. This information, done through a global insights organization, allows us to see more "meta-level" and energy-related effects.
Ellen Byron, "Home as Refuge, Fewer Reusables, Less Privacy: The Consumer Trends Emerging From Coronavirus Lockdowns", contributed by Sumita Gangwani, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 2 May 2020, accessed 26 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/home-refuge-fewer-reusables-less-privacy-consumer-trends-emerging-coronavirus-lockdowns
Critical Commentary
This article posted on the Wall Street Journal takes a timely look at global consumer trends since the start of Coronavirus Lockdown. The information summarized discusses emerging trends such as activism, pride, and mobility that are heavily influencing how consumers are shopping as affected by the Coronavirus. This is especially interesting since some alignments are directly clashing against one another. For example, there is a trend of people being more air pollution-conscious as they see decreases in pollution across the board. However, there is an increase in single-use items in order to feel "clean" and "sanitized".
These trends themselves and effects on consumerism demonstrate ideas similar to what we identified in our class discussion from Energy Fables and how we continue to see consumptions and needs as products of comfort and vulnerabilities. I think this also ties in well with our understanding of defining and characterizing vulnerability in terms of income and how its situated in certain places and time frames. This will be especially interesting to see how these trends shift for the rest of the lockdowns and as countries begin to open up. How do economic theories such as income-effect become very prominent here? How will this affect larger corporate strategies and their attempts at supporting their consumers?
I think this article gives a strong understanding and trend forecasting for anyone that is potentially interested in doing their projects as related-effects to COVID-19 or consumerism. This information, done through a global insights organization, allows us to see more "meta-level" and energy-related effects.