Signs of Change

When we lived in Chappaqua, our five-year stint, which we called ‘purgatory’ (sorry), our neighbor would often say to me that our kids should become carpenters and contractors instead of pursuing white-collar jobs. This was before the Internet changed our lives, but I do remember that conversation. They do not have to travel into the city; they live a nice, less stressful life.

Generation Z is not looking to work 80 hours a week. They want to get the job done, but life balance is number one. They want to do them. We are entering a time when college graduates are not securing the jobs they expected due to the rise of AI, and everyone has to work. People are returning to jobs that pay and require hands to do them, at least for now, such as carpentry, building furniture, and being an electrician, etc. Remember this generation went to school during Covid, and the trauma of that is rarely discussed.

I just read “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue,” which takes us through the history of the American Department Store. I didn’t realize that women ran Bendel’s, Bonwit’s, and IMAGNUM in the 1960s, and that says something in itself. Retail changed when we could buy online, and so I am pretty certain that the future of retail is not in a store the size of Saks on Fifth Avenue or Macy’s on 34th Street. People need people, and the streets of NYC are popping up with stores and restaurants, of a new era.

Luxury is struggling. Generation Z has highlighted that we are killing our planet, and people are buying less. Vintage is big and back. Embellishments are in, and people want to be unique; they don’t want to look like everybody else. Creation is in.

Large companies are losing their market share. Media companies are on life support just like the big department stores, and unfortunately, their life support is massive debt. People are pissed at big companies, from the food we eat to fast fashion to not allowing competition, and frustration.

Is it AI? Is it that the designers couldn’t do skinny pants anymore? Or did Covid nix the skinny pant to big and casual? Is it the wealth divide? Is it the cost of education? Is it the lies and anger being spewed at us daily? Is it the pace of technology? Is it the tariffs? Is it our health and shitty system? Social media? I could write paragraphs. It is a combo of so many things, but it is clear that the wind is shifting.