Loro Piana & Quiet Luxury 💎
This Week in Review☕: GenZ are on a budget | The latest trend to emerge from Tiktok | Ultra-processed food emerges as a global concern | Ties have a comeback | WeWork still stuck in bad leases | Booze
Quick Bites:
Money 💰: Every winter, we long for Loro Piana's soft cashmere scarves and Max Mara's elevated classics, all in the name of "quiet luxury". We then justify each over-the-top purchase using "girl math" 🙄
But this 2024, there is a new idea taking shape that restricts spending, and instead promotes saving.
Welcome to the year of "loud budgeting", CNBC reports.
The trend, that has emerged from TikTok, encourages young people to make better financial choices.
Loud Budgeting: an approach that involves saying no to social opportunities, from grabbing sushi with your best friend to not buying a new dress just because Kylie Jenner wore it.
Most importantly, it's an approach that involves being vocal about making financially-conscious decisions, CNBC.
Umm you say spending addiction. We say economic simulation. Everyone contributes in their own way🖕🏻
We're sure retail stores aren't too happy about this emerging social media trend. The new year is their peak time to make money.
PS. Why don't grocery stores participate in the winter sales? 🤔 Like we don't need 30% off on a Samsung plasma TV.. Give us half off laundry detergent and $1 coffee creamers and then you better believe we'll stop being a stingy scrooge 🙏🏻
Our Thoughts💡: Participating in 'loud budgeting' by walking around Walmart and shrieking 'THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS, WE WILL NOT PAY IT'.
PS. The internet just comes up with a make-believe term for everything.. 'Loud budgeting' when its actually just called 'BEING AN ADULT' 🤷🏻♀️
Food🍔: Food advertising reaches a disruptive moment as pushing ultra-processed food becomes a thing of the past, The New York Times reports.
As Ozempic and weight-loss diets become increasingly popular, "crave-able" food seems to be losing its selling power.
Guess the days of this ridiculous brainwashing are over as people gravitate towards their health.
In the United States, Ferrero, maker of Nutella, actually convinced folks that the chocolate spread was 'part of a nutritious breakfast' 🤯🤯
Only the most intense combo of fat & sugar masqueraded as brunch! 🤬
Today, we are living in the Ozempic era. A class of new drugs designed to get rid of cravings, as well as a fresh body of data that shows the connection between addiction and food.
Ultra-processed foods, made with cheap and harmful industrial ingredients, are emerging as a global concern.
In 2024, the $1 trillion food industry reaches a pivotal moment.
The last time the industry faced such disruption came in the 1990s, when fat was demonized, ruining sales of products like and Baked Lay's potato chips and cholesterol-free cookies, The NY Times.
Our Thoughts💡: Meanwhile, us walking thru the junk food aisle like👇🏻
Business🏢: WeWork still stuck in bad leases.
Two months into bankruptcy proceedings and WeWork has only convinced 38 of its roughly 500 landlords to improve on their existing lease contract terms, WSJ reports.
Because more affordable leases could negatively impact property values, many landlords are hesitant to allow the failed co-working company to renegotiate.
Background💡: In trying to scale quickly, WeWork's grow-at-any-cost rise to riches started to look like a Ponzi scheme in hindsight. Adam Neumann went from millennial entrepreneur to martyr in a span of days in 2019.
But it's founder, who led the company before being pushed out in 2019, is still worth $1.7 billion.
Adam Neumann Rules💡:
Find rich idiots to give you to build a massive money pit where your wife fires employees because they have the wrong astrological sign, and then make them pay you a billion to leave
The company has achieved at least $3.7 billion in savings through amending leases.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, its post-bankruptcy future “largely depends on the result of ongoing lease restructuring efforts.”
Our Thoughts💡: WeWork.. A perfect storm of a mesmerising leader, cheap money, an obsession with being a tech company and an unrealistic optimism that growth will make up for a gazillion losses.
A cautionary tale.. #WeWORKED
Tech 👓: Apple Vision Pro pre-orders sell out.
Apple's latest big reveal, the $3,500 Vision Pro VR headset, sold out almost immediately, according to Forbes.
Apple had stockpiled as many as 80,000 units before Friday's pre-ordering began.
Apple was expecting to sell 400,000 units this year. With the surge in demand, deliveries might be delayed to March.
Loyal Apple fans + VR professionals are most likely responsible for this initial surge.
According to Forbes, it’s possible the out-of-stock situation isn’t as much about hardware as it is about in-store experience.
Apple Vision Pro will require an extensive orientation, and it’s possible Apple is limiting orders to its ability to deliver that in-store experience.
Fashion 👔 : Are ties really back?
In the latest fashion shows from Prada to Gucci, neckties were everywhere.
As formal events resume and people head back to the office, fashion brands are coming up with new ways to wear the classic necktie, Business of Fashion reports.
For the past 3 years, the nectie was saved for special occasions: if you're a crypto fraud under trial, attending a black tie event or at a funeral. That's pretty much it folks.
This once-essential accessory which became a relic of the past during Covid is now having a comeback.
Our Thoughts💡: Tbh, while comfy, non-tie clothing has been the norm in the tech sector for years, the pandemic made it the new normal for ALL, irrespective of the industry.
We've firsthand witnessed the market explode for casual dressing guys. Infact, sweats (atleast waist-down) continue to be the official #WFH uniform till today.
We're not sure we'll call it a 'Tie comeback', but we'll definitely see more ties being sold in 2024 than 2023.
Quicker Bites:
Indian PM Narendra Modi inaugurates controversial Hindu temple on site of razed mosque.
More Boeing 737s under scrutiny.
Elon Musk visits site of Auschwitz death camp.
Cameroon rolls out World’s 1st Malaria vaccine.
Exxon Mobil sues activist investors.
Netanyahu rejects Hamas’ conditions for deal to release hostages and end war.
Ron DeSantis suspends presidential campaign.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, diagnosed with skin cancer.
Martin Luther King Jr’s youngest son, Dexter, has died at age 62.
Controversial hindu temple? I suggest you educate yourself before copy pasting news from news channel which have 0 credibility and apparent biases