Cheap Stuff’s High Price

Plus: Tesla EV layoffs and Dave and Buster’s rolls the dice

Happy Friday! This week, we examine America’s fascination with cheap goods amidst a period of consumer craze. But first...

📡ON OUR RADAR  

• After letting about 14,000 people from its global workforce go a few weeks ago, Tesla laid off nearly its entire electric vehicle charging team. This comes as puzzled onlookers ponder the projected surge of demand for EV chargers nationwide, and Tesla’s expected role in maintaining a cross-country network of EV infrastructure.

• From chanting spells to weird indie flicks to singing complex show tunes on Broadway, Daniel Radcliffe is offering a remarkable blueprint for constant personal reinvention as he defies his childhood actor brand.

• Forget corporate burnout, everyone’s talking about ‘dating burnout’. Bumble debuted a brand refresh that plays off the concept this week after dating app users spent months buzzing all over social media about their woes. Chief among them: the exhaustion that comes from seemingly endless swiping.

💡ON OUR MINDS:  The High Price of Cheap Stuff

• Americans love stuff. And things – especially when they’re cheap. Since the pandemic, people are spending more of their money on goods than before and, in the process, defying expectations of just how much more we can buy.
• To some extent, consumerism is a backbone of American culture – we view our purchasing ability as a capitalist superpower. American consumers wield, using it to signal aspects of our identities or show support for causes we believe in. Sure.
• However, this comes at a price that’s a lot more costly than your favorite influencer’s recent Shein haul. Products today are made from cheaper materials that fall apart quickly and pile up in landfills.
• Patagonia, a brand known for its sustainability efforts, recently dubbed this trend “Shitthropocene” in a short film examining overconsumption’s impact on the planet. Far from blind to the irony here, Patagonia acknowledges that while this campaign condemns overconsumption, it covertly encourages viewers to buy higher-quality Patagonia products.
• As long as brands continue to reinvent their message to inspire us to open our wallets, overconsumption will likely live to see another day– our planet, however, is another story.

🥊QUICK HITS:

In case you missed these reads:

• Everyone wants to place sports bets these days, and now thanks to Dave & Buster's new rules that allow customers to bet on arcade games, they can be.

• MLB is finally addressing its see-through uniform fiasco. Fans welcome change because they love to see their favorite athletes up close…but maybe not that close.

• Walmart is bowing out of its “broken business model” of healthcare centers and virtual care services.