I got it from my dad. Nothing jacked up his already-heightened blood pressure like being late for things. He taught me a trick I use with my own family – often telling the girls events start a half hour before they actually do, so we always make it with a few minutes to spare.
It’s also a running joke at CivicScience. I like to arrive first. Our company meetings start promptly on the hour, whether everyone is there or not – and I always cover the most important stuff first, so the stragglers miss out. Still, many straggle. I guess I’m not a scary boss.
It’s not that I’m never late. Stuff happens. I sometimes forget about meetings altogether. Plus, in the world of perpetual, back-to-back Zooms, there’s never any buffer. Conversations run over. But, man, does it make me anxious and embarrassed when they do.
Arrival times have become the ultimate business flex, recently surpassing “not responding to an email.” You can often tell who thinks they’re in the power position based on when they show up. As a “vendor” I can literally set my watch to clients and sales prospects dropping in somewhere between three to five minutes after the appointed start time. At ten minutes, I usually bail.
Ironically, I’ve noticed that the most egregious offenders tend to be junior or mid-ranking in their company. Conversely, many of the most punctual people I know are simultaneously the most successful, wealthiest, and highest-titled people I know. It’s unintuitive.
My theory, though, is that those more junior people are seldom in the power position. Shit flows downhill, and vendors are the only thing lower on the corporate totem pole. Signaling that they had something more important to do – that they’re soooo busy – makes up for all the times they’re on the other end. Most, at least, apologize. But the hierarchy is already established.
Anyway, I’ve come to accept it. In most cases, I’m the one asking for something, so I suppose it’s to be expected. Entrepreneurship is nothing if not an exercise in rejection and humility.
On the bright side, it gives me roughly an hour every week to chip away at email while I wait. I’d never keep up otherwise.
So, I’ll keep on being early.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
Nearly one in three Americans are currently late on at least one household bill. In our 3 Things to Know this week, we examined yet another subplot of our current macroeconomic mess, finding that 29% of U.S. adults are in arrears on one or more required payments. It jumps to 39% among lower-income households. Credit card bills lead the way, followed by medical bills and utilities. We also looked at the state of paid childcare in the country and how the burden of cost weighs differently on families across the income spectrum. Finally, and entirely unrelated, we learned that Gen Z isn’t big on taking leftovers home from a restaurant.
Looming tariffs are already scaring off new car buyers. A whopping 62% of U.S. adults who said they’re currently considering a new car purchase are rethinking their plans in the face of impending tariffs on imported cars and parts. One-third of those new car intenders are delaying their purchase altogether, while one in five are opting instead for a used car. Expected SUV buyers are the most likely to report delaying their purchase, sedan buyers are most likely to buy used instead, and truck buyers are the least likely to alter their plans at all. But, as we’ve said for weeks, everything could change on a dime. Uncertainty is rising by the day.
YouTube is making major gains in streaming audio. We’ve been tracking YouTube’s Premium, ad-free service since 2020, and its gains were impressive over the subsequent three years before hitting a plateau in 2024, likely another symptom of consumer pullbacks. What hasn’t slowed, however, is the percentage of Americans who regularly use YouTube to listen to music or podcasts – a group that now represents 61% of U.S. adults. The data suggest YouTube is making a non-trivial dent in the usage of other streaming music platforms. Back to YouTube Premium: While growth has been flat recently, its users are a coveted bunch – economically optimistic and frequent subscribers of pay-walled content websites like the NYT and WSJ.
Dollar stores are no longer riding the wave of inflation. After a spike in shopper traffic coming out of the pandemic, one that lasted early into 2024, Dollar Tree and Dollar General have hit a wall over the past 12 months. Even as higher-income consumers began turning to dollar stores to save a buck, they could not overcome the bigger declines among more frequent, lower-income shoppers who’ve been cutting back across the board. The lack of e-commerce options at dollar stores hasn’t helped either, as fewer people want to venture out to shop at all. But what struck me most from this study was the chart below. Discount-seeking consumers are fearful right now, and it’s driving them to rethink all of their financial commitments.
Media and advertising research is about to be disrupted in a big way. If you follow the media trade publications, you have no doubt heard about the launch of a company called Tenetic this week. It’s the brainchild of a handful of industry legends who really tested my sense of imposter syndrome by inviting me to join their board. Tenetic is combining several sources of data (including ours), along with top-to-bottom AI, to empower local media companies – and eventually national ones – to more effectively and profitably attract audiences and sell advertising. It’s a huge leap of innovation in a category of services that haven’t appreciably evolved in decades. I wrote more about it here if you like Formula One metaphors.
More awesomeness from the InsightStore this week:
- A lot more guys use Harry’s shaving products than I realized – here’s who they are;
- The combination of food delivery apps and Buy Now, Pay Later services says everything you need to know about the economy right now.
The most popular questions this week:
Would you consider buying a tiny home?
To what extent do you personally view climate change as an economic threat?
How likely, if at all, do you think it is that you would be able to assist in a medical emergency?
Would you ever consider getting a tattoo of your astrological sign?
How happy would you say you are with your life?
Answer Key: Um, no, I’m a claustrophobe; Very, very much; Somewhat likely – I still remember my CPR training, anyway; Two things I have no interest in…tattoos and astrology; Beyond words.
Hoping you’re well.
JD
