More Sellers, Higher Prices and an Impact on the Primary Market: The Most Interesting Stuff From Resale Earnings

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Don’t miss our latest consumer insights report, which highlights what consumers are spending on this summer + business opportunities.

• The jobs report for July was not great, with U.S. employers cutting 23,000 jobs on top of issuing a negative revision for May and June. Wages are also not keeping up with inflation, adding to the pressure consumers feel, especially when it comes to gas and groceries.

• Consumers are adjusting the ways they grocery shop to manage high food costs. Some are opting for bulk buying, more are opting for chicken over beef, and some are going to the store fewer times to save on gas.

• Certain states are offering tax-free shopping days in time for the back-to-school shopping rush. Retailers, too, are offering deals: Target has backpacks for $5, and Walmart said it’s taking certain items, like Crayons, down to 2019 prices.

• A new rule proposes that food and beverage companies alert the Food and Drug Administration when they introduce new ingredients, and to prove that those ingredients are safe.

• People are picking up more hobbies in search of whimsy and fulfillment — and some single people are choosing hobbies over dating apps. This is part of a larger trend we’ve been watching as consumers gravitate towards offline, IRL and tactile activities.

• South Korea is a bright spot for luxury companies right now, and luxury brands are gravitating more and more to the market. Given the country’s AI-adjacent economic boom, the move makes sense.

• And even with ongoing tension in the Middle East, experts still see Dubai as a long-term fashion capital, and the city will host a fashion week from Sept. 1-6.

• Outdoor gear brand Mammut has new owners and a plan to open more than 100 stores in China, where there’s growing interest in outdoor gear and lifestyle.

• Alo is testing the China market and has launched on Tmall. The brand is also opening a store in Hong Kong later this year, with more locations planned for Shanghai and Shenzhen.

• More South Americans visited the U.S. first half of 2026 — some of the them building out multi-state stays around World Cup visits. Visitors from many other regions have pulled back on U.S. tourism, though many opted for World Cup visits in Mexico.

• The Federal Communications Commission removed a limit about how many households a single television station owner could reach. The shift could enable more media-industry consolidation. (Allison Collins)

The new Spider-Man movie is so cute I have seen it twice, and cried both times. It’s very entertaining and funny, but feels a bit more heartfelt than your average superhero movie. (Allison Collins)

Why So Many C.E.O.s Are Getting a Chief of Staff (NYTimes)

Young Men Who Trade Stocks Daily Feel Like Failures (Bloomberg)

Qixi 2026: How luxury brands are crafting new codes of love (Jing Daily)

The Analysis is a paid subscriber benefit. This week, we’re uncovering themes from resale company earnings ahead of launching our own resale consumer insights report (coming soon). Here, we dive into consumer-drive shifts in the resale ecosystem, why the quest for value is leading to higher-priced item sales, and a fun new way consumers evaluate primary-market purchases. For more consumer insights, check out our consumer insights library, here.

I have been shopping on The RealReal since 2016. I love it on there, despite the often bad product imagery and irritating shipping costs. In the past few years, I’ve broadened my resale shopping behavior to include auctions, eBay and IRL secondhand stores. I have friends who basically have PhD’s in Poshmark, and others who are barely buying anything new to furnish their homes.

We’ve dug into various segments of resale here before — luxury, home, thrifting — and today we’re going to walk through the most important themes to come out of this quarter’s resale earnings reports (from The RealReal, eBay and ThredUp). The fact that all of these companies are doing well as consumers gravitate more and more to resale is obvious. Today, we’re getting into how resale is changing consumer behavior, and the relationship between primary and secondary markets.

First, we’ll talk about how the entire structure of the resale ecosystem is changing. Second, we’ll get into value — and why in resale, it often leads to sales for more expensive items. And third, we’ll get into one of the new-ish consumer shifts: resale prices are impacting primary-market buying decisions.