Welcome to The Trend Report: Business Edition™, a midweek look at top stories, trends, and more of what’s happening online and off by Kyle of The Trend Report™. Today, we’re looking at some big news for me, the rise of “private” shopping experiences, why influencer culture is going to change, and why Airbnb hosts represent the end of the app era.
I’ve lived in Barcelona for the past four-and-a-quarter-ish years, which has been an adventure. My partner, Bobby Aaron Solomon, and I were looking for a change after a decade and a half in Los Angeles and, all these years later, we certainly got that from years in Europe — but we also found ourselves longing. It’s hard to explain and probably harder for most to understand, but I’ll sum it up as the reality of life abroad mismatching with the desires I/he/we had for our lives all multiplied by the immigrant experience. Our eyes started to wander some time ago, looking for where “the next spot” would be. In considering the past, present, and future, we landed on an answer: on August 15, I’ll land in NYC — and I don’t have a return ticket. This is both very exciting and very ????? as the past few years in Spain have been great, but I’ve found that I’ve left too many cards on the table as far as my life and career. Most of this decade has felt like living in an alternate universe where life is happening “over there,” with me watching everything through various screens. I’m ready to participate again, you know?
So! A few logistics and updates, some of which I’d love your help on but also some ways you may be able to get involved with.
First item: getting work figured out. I’ve been freelancing for the past few years and am very much looking to amp up clients — or figure out another situation entirely, ideally in the writing space via copywriting, editorial/journalism, or some other position in media (although I’m on the fence about returning to producing). Yes, I know this is what literally everyone wants to do but, if you’re familiar with my work and want to make something happen, I’m all ears. Here’s my LinkedIn!
Similarly: Bobby Aaron Solomon is looking for work too, given his career as a graphic designer and working as a creative director for more than a decade at Disney that then extended into agencies. Here’s his LinkedIn too! He’s also the one responsible for the design of this newsletter 👀
An ideal situation would be: he lands a job and I beef up my freelance roster, all while further pushing The Trend Report™ toward becoming “a job.” This may be impossible given…have you seen the state of the economy? Oy. This is why I’m asking for help lol
Second! Get ready for more Trend Report™ events. A big part of this newsletter I’ve only partially been able to act on online and in various cities is activating and connecting the community. Something I haven’t quite been able to do is put publications this publication on its feet, which is something I did with Los Angeles, I’m Yours via a storytelling night at Covell and launching LITLIT with LARB in collaboration with Hauser & Wirth and founding an iconic (Still running!) book club. These are efforts to bring people together around shared interests and ideas — and I’m ready to tap back into this skill to personally help end the friendship crisis and offer counter-programming in the name of helping people move on from conversations about god damned third places. If you attended an event in Barcelona or Los Angeles or New York, you know what I’m talking about. I’m still figuring things out — but!! A few items in-the-works to take note of. If you have an idea and or want to collab or add me to something, drop me a line.
There will be another live HIP REPLACEMENT at some point in September. Stay tuned for more!
Pending timing, I may do a Trend Report Live™ in September as well along with a Q3 Trend Report: Trend Report™ kickoff in October.
I’m figuring things out now for a Culture Slop conversation later September or even October.
Maybe a happy hour(s) at some point? Or somethign else entirely? I’m also trying to not burn myself out either 🤭 If anything, I have an idea for programming in the new year: stay tuned.
Third! If you’re in Barcelona, Bobby and I will be in and out for the coming months, as we’ll be moving things and trying to keep life happening here given the people we love here and being a citizen. But: to prevent ships passing in the night (which will be hard as the city is already cleared out for August), we’re doing a hang 7PM this Saturday, August 8, at Mog in Eixample: pop by and grab a glass of wine and a snack! I’ll bring copies of Culture Slop too!! Add the event to your calendar and or RSVP here.
Woo wee: I know I am missing things but that was a lot. If you have any thoughts on any of this, send me a note. As a wise woman once said, this is the beginning of the rest of your life — and I am ready for it to begin anew.
Have you notice a rise in “private” and or discreet shopping concepts? In these overly surveilled times, the irl space of getting private things in public has yielded retail expressions to help us work through our bashfulness and the prying eyes of anyone with a camera. Sephora seems to have pioneered this, by introducing leave-me-alone baskets years ago and recently instituting quiet hours (and, while I hate it, all of its work with agentifying shopping suggests this too). Walmart has similar “quiet shopping,” which helps make shopping more accessible in general but also aims to reduce sensory overload. On the other end of the spectrum, toward the top of the K, “private clubs” have taken the idea of Soho House into retail as Selfridges adds private personal shopping floors, as nightclubs shift to wellness centers, and the “new mall” becomes a “mini country club.” Privacy — no matter what, no matter who — for your capitalism it seems. The concept is evolving fast too, feeling like olive branches in unprivate times (Hello, kissing lawyers!), companies “selling” privacy and the feeling of privacy to ensure only you have the paper trail of your desires and needs. DoorDash is the latest to play in this space, as they just launched CringeMart, which seeks to put a barrier between sensitive items (Sex toys, douches, laxatives, Plan B, etc.) and those delivering the product. The effort is to eliminate “IRL cringe,” which is great but also…it reaches a point. “If it’s in CringeMart, it’s probably something you need but don’t want to be seen in public with,” Doordash’s Head of Brand Social, Zaria Parvez, said in a statement, “which is exactly why we built it…no questions asked” This will most definitely continue to evolve, as various tiers of buying our way out of shared truths emerge. A fascinating side-effect of “all this.”
This may be the year when influencing ends, or at least our understanding of it completely shifts as the format becomes exhausted, as something else waits to enter the ring. (Which, no, will not be AI so don’t even let your mind go there.) In spring, the “feed is fake” pulled the covers back on a known phenomena that gave a preview of what we’re experiencing now: a questioning of what influencers do now, if they’re capable of transmitting information as they once did, and what “the point” of their influence is. Let’s race through the recent items that have emerged in the last week to suggest a the end of this era —
The rise of ragebait influencing, which popped on the scene last week thanks to a viral Vulture story on the subject that posits influencers making “rage bait” videos to breakthrough because their normal content isn’t — and because people are increasingly disinterested in influencers as they’re disconnected from real people. As has been mused — and as I wrote about in the Q1 Trend Report™ — ragebait is a means to break through the noise, to be so extra and ridiculous that people pay attention. Little Donald Trumps everywhere, it seems.
The rise of AI ragebait influencing, which Jeremy Carrasco pointed out as the AI slop videos haven’t been connecting with audiences — so they’re resorting to videos about political violence or store stocking confusions to manipulate audiences to sell products. Funny how both real people and AI “creators” have ended up at the same end point, huh? Again: AI creators are not “next.” They’re already failing to deliver.
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