People! Amazon unions + hospitality staff burnout + Nike at 50 🎈 + Westfield as civic space? + London's best* bakery! (*imho) 🍞 + art! 🎨
This might be my weirdest collection of links and stuff yet.
Threshold thoughts
Recently I bought a book (Rose Blake’s Egg and Spoon, since you ask) from Rough Trade and the cardboard envelope it arrived in had one of these stickers on:
It’s interesting to see visually vocal (is that a thing?) company and consumer rejection of Amazon. The resilience of the bookselling market against it is a remarkable thing in itself - I doubt many commentators would have predicted the rise of independents plus initiatives like Bookshop.org. Competition is good, monopolies are not. As nature thrives via diversity, I believe the same can be said for retail… maybe life in general? Too much? Sorry.
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A is for Amazon, Apple n Aldi, U is for unionisation
The rise in unionisation at retail is just one of several big factors in the sector atm. Will we see more of this in Europe too?
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“…a future where coffee is served by robots is not an improvement on the coffee shop. It ignores a central purpose of the neighborhood cafe, a place for hot drinks and human interaction.” from Why Strangers are Good for Us (David Sax in NYT)
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An update on the Ikea and H&M store in Hammersmith (Forbes)
I need to get out west to check it out (it’s really far for someone in SE London to get over there, ok?). Interesting that the writer of the piece notes how the lack of brand owners being present to tell their stories is a potential issue. At a small biz level, there’s an argument for people buying people, then they buy their products / brands.
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I missed this Jacquemus at Selfridges happening. Eye-catching stuff.
Love how Random Studio presents its work, and the attention to detail / story is oof*. Also, their studio space looks (and sounds) so good.
*great. Oof means great.
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“Museums and galleries were archives, they’re now theatres.”
The same could be said for many shops now.
Lifted from a very enjoyable conversation with Charles Saurez-Smith on the John Sandoe Books podcast.
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Hospitality staff burnt during the pandemic = opportunity for smaller competitors to steal share from the big boys?
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“A story of how we construct the myths of ourselves”
“An emblem of individuality that can be read by the masses.”
A decade or so back, I did some research for Nike in Shanghai and Tokyo and got to spend a day with Fraser Cooke. I’m not ‘a Nike guy’, but it was a fascinating ‘in’ to the world that he and his team were part of. At one point we got in a modified truck with a Tokyo rapper to go visit a store that had Hipster in the name. Or did I dream that?
Anyway: lots of brands and agencies talk about the importance of being part of / driving / collaborating with culture. How many are willing / able to truly invest in it?
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This was a good listen too - Cubitts founder talking about importance of bricks and mortar plus the risks of getting too ‘in bed with’ Facebook Meta to reach customers.
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Olga Tocarzurk - via Buckslip (a favourite newsletter that has recently returned to my inbox :-)
“Our generation and previous generations were trained to tell the world: YES, YES, YES. We kept repeating: I’ll try this and also this, I’ll go there and then there, I’ll experience this as well as that. I’ll take this, and what’s the harm in taking that one, too?
Now alongside us there is a generation that understands that the most humane and ethical choice in this new situation is learning to say: NO, NO, NO. I will give up this and that. I will limit that and that. I don’t need that. I don’t want this. I will let this go.”
Quite.
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Are we doomed tho?
You be the judge, I don’t have a clue.
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Store of the month
Arome Bakery, Covent Garden / Seven Dials: superlative pastries (I had a glazed curry-sausage thing, the type of which you might have in Tokyo and think “this would never happen in London.” Well, now it has and gadddammmm. The interior by EJ Ryder is beautifully considered too. 5* goodness located here.
Ellen Chew is the cofounder / biz brain behind it. Must check out the rest of her restaurant world.
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Westfield: the new civic space? Hmm… we’ve heard that before.
Interesting piece in The Drum on malls as media space. Perhaps they have always been so, but the shift towards less consumption being recognised by one of the world’s retail mega powers is worthy of note.
“We know people are looking for more experience and less consumption – they want to continue buying but buy differently and they want an experience… We act as an entertainment park like Disney, but you don’t have to pay to enter, you aren’t forced to buy anything, you can just have water and observe.”
Anyone fancy seeing how long they can spend in a Westfield and not buy anything?
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Consumption as art / art as consumption
Interested in art and commerce? Of course you are. Well, you should check out Sophie Cunningham’s work - I happened upon it at the (frankly ridiculously good throughout) Goldsmiths MFA show (sorry, think it closes the day I’ve finally gotten round to sending this).
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“His supersized sculptures of spoons and ice cream cones combined consumerist pleasure and intellectual irreverence.” (FT)
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