ThisIsRetail #15
Welcome to ThisIsRetail, your weekly look at some of the more diverse and unexpected stuff influencing the way we buy, sell and consume in the 21st century.
We're not a news feed, nor are we algorithm-powered content aggregator. No, we prefer to painstakingly hand-pick the innovative, the new, the stimulating, and the provocative. Expect diverse and, sometimes, esoteric features on culture, politics, travel, art, music, literature, and technology - plus anything else we find intriguing - so long as it's on a collision-course with consumerism.
So why are we doing this? Well, amid the doom and gloom that clouds the sector, we want to shine a light on some of good stuff going on. We're optimistic for the future of retail, but it's up to us all to seize the opportunities it presents.
What's on the stocks? This week includes a look at the inexorable rise of drag (and we're not talking motorsport) - from the fringes to high-fashion runways, an incredible case of cross-over technology, and then there's the story behind those bees...
Now, sashay away!
America has a new national pastime
What was once a glittery camp subculture on the edge of gay culture has become a pop preoccupation. It's a global business with its own star-power machinery attached. This is the rise of Drag, Inc. [Vulture - New York Magazine]
Goggles 'give back' sight to Maisy so she can read again
She lost most of her vision due to a brain tumour, but is about to read for the first time in years. This is a wonderful example of what can be happen when modern technology is re-imagined for entirely different purposes [BBC Click]
They see it. They like it. They want it. They rent it.
In the circular economy, owning nothing is now a luxury. Welcome to the gilded Age of renting [New York Times]
How bookshops survived the Amazon onslaught
'Welcome book lovers, you are among friends'. Despite being in the eye of the storm, this is the story of how the book trade survived, and believes it has found ways to thrive [Financial Times]
McDonald's opens world's smallest restaurant, for bees
Meet McHive, a new eco-marketing initiative aimed at the preservation and well-being of wild bees, and is expected to attract thousands of important guests, every day (though not you, Sting) [designboom]
Making Billions at the Dollar Store
How Dollar General's 7-Eleven-like convenience and Walmart-like low prices helped create a retail monster. But they're not finished yet, not by a long shot [Fortune Magazine]
The resurrection of Dolce & Gabbana
After the Italian fashion house's annus horribilis, outrage, apparently, lasts only so long when looking good is involved [New York Times - Fashion]
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