A half baked answer to your question, but I think you're totally on to something about the "recession indicators" being a way to add meaning to such fast, cyclical trends. I've seen so many tweets arbitrarily assigning this label to cultural/social/consumer trends with absolutely no basis, and honestly, it's starting to feel like "recession indicator" has a different meaning or significance!
It's also really interesting to think about this in context of trends that are very much NOT recession indicators but are flourishing - case in point, labubu's. The $$$$ price tag is not recession friendly, but that's not stopping consumers. What does this say about how consumers actually view this economic instability?
Okay yes glad you agree! I was having trouble completely connecting the dots. And YES, I've also been thinking a lot about how there are so many (expensive) trends still circulating despite the recession indicator discourse! It almost feels like we enjoy engaging with and discussing economic vibes, but we're not actually changing our spending behaviors.
I somehow missed the news about Klarna & DoorDash, but that's wild. Here comes the buy now pay later debt!!!
A half baked answer to your question, but I think you're totally on to something about the "recession indicators" being a way to add meaning to such fast, cyclical trends. I've seen so many tweets arbitrarily assigning this label to cultural/social/consumer trends with absolutely no basis, and honestly, it's starting to feel like "recession indicator" has a different meaning or significance!
It's also really interesting to think about this in context of trends that are very much NOT recession indicators but are flourishing - case in point, labubu's. The $$$$ price tag is not recession friendly, but that's not stopping consumers. What does this say about how consumers actually view this economic instability?
Okay yes glad you agree! I was having trouble completely connecting the dots. And YES, I've also been thinking a lot about how there are so many (expensive) trends still circulating despite the recession indicator discourse! It almost feels like we enjoy engaging with and discussing economic vibes, but we're not actually changing our spending behaviors.