Morning Brew - ☕️ Pucker up

Hi again. Halie here, the Brew’s resident retail writer and your Essentials host tonight. Don’t tell my editors, but I had a lot more fun putting this together than manning the bankruptcy court wires. 

—Halie LeSavage

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There was once a red lip, classic thing economists liked to consult during recession times: a consumer spending indicator known as the lipstick index. 

It’s a theory that during an economic downturn, consumers will spend more on small luxuries (a $30 tube of MAC Ruby Woo) when traditional big ticket items (a $2,000 Louis Vuitton bag) seem out of reach.

• The lipstick effect is largely credited to former Estée Lauder CEO Leonard Lauder, who introduced the term after Estée’s lipstick sales jumped during the 2001 recession. 

But the indicator’s broken. Lackluster lipstick sales during the 2009 recession put the lipstick effect on watch, and the coronavirus pandemic rendered it all but irrelevant. Lipstick sales have dropped 44% annually since March, per Nielsen data. It makes sense: No one can see a bold lip under a face mask. 

What now? Economists are searching for an alternative to their alternative consumer index. The wackiest ideas I’ve seen: 

1. The Dave & Buster’s to Clorox share price ratio index. The relationship between the two could indicate whether people are ready to crowd around DDR again...or if they’re still squeamish about germs and staying home.  
2. The big wedding index. When couples traded their 300+ guest lists for Zoom ceremonies, revenue for wedding vendors evaporated. The return of IRL nuptials = an economic rebound, so the theory goes.
3. The pants and suits index. You’re probably reading this in sweats, and that’s cratered businesses from Brooks Brothers to Jos. A. Bank. Rebounding pants and suits sales could signal a return to “normal” life.

Level up: So you haven’t penned your King Lear yet, but you still want an artistic quar souvenir. See what stories you can write after this 40-minute writing course taught by NYT bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Keep learning: Systemic racism influences everything from workplace politics to healthcare coverage. The Anti-Racism Daily is a newsletter that explains the phenomenon while also sharing ways to take action against racism in your community. 

Shop around: Bizarre consumer trends have been a rare bright spot in my retail reporting over the past six months. Here are some of the best explainers I’ve found on the pandemic shopping trends of tie dye, bikes, nap dresses, and low ABV booze. Cheers. 

We stare into the mirror, determined, a little scared, was that a bird, focus!

We say, “I want to be healthy. But I need it to be easy because I know myself.”

The mirror speaks back, “Use Thrive Market, they’re the online, membership-based marketplace for affordable, healthy products.”

“Whoa,” we stammer, “You can talk?” The mirror says, “Duh, I’m magic. It’s also magical how Thrive Market makes it easy to shop 70+ diets like keto, paleo, gluten-free, vegan, and more.” 

This mirror is chatty. “You can also find home and beauty products that are clean, safe, and non-toxic. And they’re all delivered via carbon-neutral shipping from Thrive Market’s zero-waste warehouses.”

You back away, slowly. The mirror screams, “They’ll even give you a FREE gift (up to $22) when you sign up today!”

Sign up for Thrive Market today.

Bust a move: I was a competitive jazz dancer in a past life and my kitchen counter doubles as a ballet barre. So for me, Netflix’s latest teen vehicle Work It reconfirms that the best film genre is indeed “dance movie.” 

• Genre classics to watch next, in order of how hard it is to learn the Big Dance Climax choreography yourself: Fame, Center Stage, Step Up. 
• Just in case you need to defeat a rival crew with the power of your sick moves, try 305 Fitness’s hip hop cardio or any session at Broadway Dance Center.

Take a breather: With five minutes, you can settle into a sense of calm with a quick stress reset. With 15 to 30 minutes, you can take an actually effective nap. 

The best de-stress rec I can offer? Use. Your. PTO.

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As more companies adopt permanent WFH policies, they’re realizing kombucha taps and ping pong tables can’t check the cool perks box anymore. So they’re introducing all sorts of new employee benefits for remote working: home office equipment, extra parental leave...and pet stipends? 

A handful of companies heard that an adoption wave cleared out animal shelters and added pet owner benefits to their lineup. Some examples:

• Zebra, an insurance firm, offers employees up to $300 in pet adoption grants.
• Zogics, a cleaning supplies company, gives new pet owners discounted pet insurance and a week of paid leave, among other perks. 

“Pets are the new dependents that employers are recognizing,” Deb Leon, CEO of pet insurance firm whiskerDocs, told the WSJ. “[S]ome companies are finding that 70% of their employees have pets and only 44% have children, so the benefits balance is way off.”

Reply time: If you could have any WFH perk, what would it be? Let me know so I can forward it to Brew HR.

Halie LeSavage

I stumbled on this exquisite garden on a socially distanced trip to Cape Cod. It’s been my desktop background ever since. To whoever’s responsible for these cotton candy hydrangea bushes: You deserve an HGTV special, minimum. 

That’s it for this edition. If you’d like to see me in my natural habitat, stop by Retail Brew. We’ll see you back here on Friday.