mornin' merrymakers 🛍️🪩🧠✨🌀
i've spent most of this summer walking around cities and stores. which is admittedly not unusual for me.
but i've noticed something different about the stores i'm most excited to visit.
they're rarely the ones i already know.
i still want to see what the big retailers are doing. how a national brand adapts to a neighborhood. what changed since the last time i visited. but when i arrive in a new city, the stores i'm desperate to find are the ones that exist only there.
the shop someone tells me i have to visit.
the one tucked on a street i wouldn't otherwise walk down.
the place where i don't recognize half the brands.
the store where i have no idea what i'm going to find when i open the door.
because that feeling is getting harder to come by.
in today’s letter, you'll learn:
→ why 10 things beats 10,000 things
→ what a human algo knows that a digital one can't
→ the thing i'm chasing city to city that ai can’t give me
→ the reason i’m buying online less and less
→ what the best stores add to your life that has nothing to do with shopping
overloaded with options
the internet is exceptionally good at giving us what we already know we want.
amazon can deliver the exact toothpaste i bought last time.
instagram can show me another linen set because i paused on one yesterday.
spotify can build me a playlist out of everything i've already played.
chatgpt can give me 50 ideas before i've finished my coffee.
we have more information, more advertising, more recommendations, more products & more choices than any human could reasonably process.
as we get more access, the more judgment we need.
which is why the most valuable thing a retailer can say right now is this.
we looked at the 10,000 options.
here are the 10 we know actually work.
on taste
i’m hearing lots of chatter on "taste" right now, particularly in conversations about ai.
it makes sense. when the cost of producing another image, another paragraph, another logo or another product concept approaches zero, making more things stops being impressive.
choosing well becomes the harder part.
what deserves to exist. what deserves your attention. what is worth your money. what is right for you.
retail has been teaching this lesson forever. the best independent stores have never competed by carrying the most stuff. they compete by knowing what to leave out.
a great merchant is saying…
you’ve made it to the good part 😎
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