Everyone's doing it

[ladyofastolat]

I've just caught up with a programme on last year's retail trends, a subject which I find very interesting, even though almost all of the trends have entirely passed me by. I found the programme simultaneously very interesting and very annoying, largely for its habit of making sweeping statements about how "we were ALL" doing something or other, when the figures quoted revealed that although there was indeed a note-worthy increase on last year, it was still very much a minority thing, no matter how much trendy media types might have written about it. They were very fond of saying that "a staggering £x million" was spent on such and such, when a quick bit of mental arithmetic on the likely price of the product and the adult population of the country revealed that this was actually a fairly unimpressive number. Sometimes they even made this easy for us. After one little piece about how "we were ALL" buying something or other, some trendy media type said that "it became more a case of who DIDN'T have one than who did." Yes, revealed the presenter, by the end of the year a staggering one household in 60 had one of these things. I expect there are things sneered at by the media as sad minority interests that are actually indulged in by individuals in more households than that.

We also had a use of one of the Standard Units of Measurement - in this case, the Olympic Swimming Pool. Last year, due to a massive explosion of beards that I had remained completely unaware of, enough beard trimmers were sold to fill three Olympic swimming pools. I never find the Olympic swimming pool / football pitch / London bus school of measurement remotely impressive. To me, it turns "Big Number!" into "something you can fit into a fairly small patch of ground that can be seen by one person without them even moving." "Big Number!" sounds impressive - at least if you don't think about it, and realise that it works out as only one per sixty households. Something that can fit under one roof sounds far less impressive to me, even if the roof is a big one, and each thing is very small.

As for me, the programme revealed that I have indulged in precisely two of this year's retail trends. Despite not being a huge fan of fizzy drinks - although I tolerate them more than I used to - I've bought Prosecco, since they kept plying us with free Prosecco when we were in Sorrento, and ever since then, the drink has reminded me of that holiday. I also have an adult colouring book. It's a Game of Thrones one, which I got for Christmas. I had no idea that such things promoted mindfulness! I've heard of mindfulness, but never really known what it was, or bothered to find out. I had no idea that when I spent quite a ridiculous amount of time colouring in a joust scene the other day that I was indulging in mindfulness. I thought I was just colouring in a picture.

I still have no Christmas jumper.

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I could do with a new beard trimmer. The built-in rechargeable battery on mine now barely holds enough charge for a single trim.

Decades before this modern trend for adult colouring books, there was an AD&D Colouring Book with text by Gary Gygax himself. It's quite collectable and rarely seen on this side of the Atlantic. We've never had one in the Shop. (It's also notable for revealing that a female ranger should be referred to as a "Rangeress", at least according to Gygax.)

I bought prosecco in 2015.

What were some of the other retail trends that we were all doing...?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Um... Spiralisers. Nutribullets. 70s fashion (especially skirts and furry jackets). Beard grooming. "Athleisurewear" - sports wear worn as a fashion statement, including very expensive trainers endorsed by celebrity rappers. An exercise DVD presented by some woman from Geordie Shore. Diamante handcuffs and similar, inspired by 50 Shades of Grey. Coconut milk. Probably some other things that I can't remember.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I can tick off beard grooming, but not anything else on that list. The other things seem to be about fruit and vegetables, sexual deviancy or (in the case of the exercise DVD presented by some woman by Geordie Shore) both.