Hi! With fewer people spending today stuffing leftovers between bread, bargain hunters may instead be stuffing their bags in retail stores: the NRF has predicted the biggest ever turnout for the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, with 186.9 million people expected to shop. Today we're exploring: |
- Hollisterback: Abercrombie & Fitch's mall staple is a hit with teens again.
- Plane clothes officers: US officials want Americans to ditch pajamas at airports.
- Bot chat: Our new idiot's guide to AI jargon.
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Hollister is the hottest thing in Abercrombie & Fitch's wardrobe again |
The stage in life where you start saying, "that was in fashion when I was your age!" sadly comes for us all, as trend cycles continue to spin — spitting everything from iPods and wired headphones, to froyo and baggy jeans back into mainstream culture. One brand that's well positioned (and seemingly very willing) to capitalize on the nostalgia-driven appetite for all things 2000s? Hollister, the coastal-inspired mall staple launched by Abercrombie & Fitch at the turn of the millennium. |
Younger consumers might never understand the uniquely jarring sensory experience of walking into a dimly lit Hollister in the 2000s, to be greeted by shirtless male store assistants and blasted by overwhelming pop chart fodder, since the company revamped its stores around the mid-2010s. But the brand hasn't ditched all of its heritage, leaning into its roots with a Y2K revival collection in the summer and a new noughties-tinged Taco Bell collab. It appears to be paying off, too: a day after announcing the new Taco Bell line, Abercrombie & Fitch reported earnings that crushed expectations and sent shares soaring, with Hollister's growth cementing its position, once again, as the prize item in Abercrombie's closet. |
Hollister and its parent company more broadly have faced the age-old dilemma: do you age your products with the people who liked them initially — ditching teens for millennials who are starting families and buying houses — or stick to your guns and hope you can still appeal to teenagers today? Between its two biggest brands, A&F has managed to do a bit of both. It's added more diversified offerings for men's and women's wear across Abercrombie; it's also doubled down on the younger demographic through Hollister, having enlisted Gen Z favorite Benson Boone for a promo campaign and pumped money into influencer programs, cultivating demand for youth-targeted ranges. With Hollister now the "number 1 apparel brand for female teens, disrupting Nike's dominance," according to a Piper Sandler survey from earlier this year, A&F's efforts to modernize the brand seem to be working. |
US officials want to ditch pajamas at the airport |
America may have gotten a little too comfortable when it comes to air travel. That's the view of some US officials who want to bring back some "courtesy and class" to flights — just as we approach the weekend of what's expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in 15 years. Last week, the US Department of Transportation rolled out a civility campaign called "The Golden Age of Travel Starts With You," a nationwide push to restore old-school travel etiquette. In an interview with Fox Business, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urged travelers to not wear pajamas and slippers at airports, saying "people dress up like they're going to bed when they fly." |
While some travelers are already embracing the advice, sharp backlash has followed online, with many arguing that stressful flying conditions — cramped seats, reduced amenities, chronic delays, and staffing shortages — were much bigger problems than outfits. Indeed, airlines worldwide are shrinking legroom and narrowing seats (some as little as 16-17 inches wide), and with that tightening, it's no surprise that travelers everywhere are prioritizing ease over elegance. In recent years, Google searches for "airport pajamas" and "airport slippers" have risen both in the US and globally. But, if attitudes across the pond are any indication, the pajama debate might just be more of a generational divide. |
A YouGov poll published just this week found that 30% of Britons think wearing pajamas on a flight is acceptable, driven largely by young adults (71% of 18- to 24-year-olds). The 65+ cohort — some of whom might actually remember remnants of the "Golden Age" the DoT wants to revive — are dead against it, with a whopping 78% of respondents in that age group saying it was unacceptable. |
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Markets can be unpredictable, yet investors strive for consistent results. This leads to the ongoing challenge: "Do I buy undervalued stocks or chase the trends leading the market higher?" |
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Unless your entire group has been living under a rock — or you work for Apple, a company that continues to mostly ignore the trend — the topic of AI has likely come up with your family and friends this Thanksgiving, perhaps even taking the place of politics. If the subject is yet to befall your dinner table, or you're just looking to impress some of your more plugged-in relatives, we've prepared a quick glossary of AI-adjacent vocab, focusing on some of the terms that have gone modestly viral at various peaks and troughs of the hype cycle this year. |
Maybe you've heard of AI slop, but do you know your GPUs from your TPUs? Is the Jevons Paradox still holding? And what was that app your cousin said they "vibe coded"? If any of these sound alien to you, hopefully our new AI jargon cheatsheet might help empower you to at least seem a little more (artificially) intelligent. |
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| - Apple is on track to ship more smartphones than rival Samsung for the first time in 14 years.
- A new MIT study using the labor simulation tool the "Iceberg Index" has found that AI could already replace 11.7% of the US labor market.
- Another installment of buddy cop comedy "Rush Hour" has officially been greenlit by Paramount 20 years after the last movie premiered — following a presidential push for its revival.
- That's a-lotl cash… A recent report from the Bank of Mexico revealed almost 13 million people are hoarding ~$150 million worth of 50-peso (~$3) notes because of their axolotl-themed design.
- Gramma, a Galapagos tortoise who's lived through two World Wars and 20 presidents, died at the estimated age of 141 last week.
- As OpenAI wheels out the (blueberry?) cake to celebrate 3 years of ChatGPT, it's betting that the chatbot's mind-boggling growth will continue, projecting paid subscribers to reach 220 million by 2030.
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- This open access project from the University of Washington and Boston University lets you search through an archive of 10+ million government PDF documents.
- Wurst case scenario: Pew Research Center details how Germans' view of US-German relations has soured.
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Off the charts: America is spending almost as much on building ______ as it does on new office space? [Answer below]. |
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VictoryShares Disclosure: Carefully consider a fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus containing this and other important information, visit http://www.vcm.com/prospectus. Read it carefully before investing. All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. An investment should only be made with an understanding of the risks involved with owning a particular security or asset class. Momentum investing may be more volatile than other investments. Momentum can turn quickly and funds may experience significant losses if momentum stops, turns or behaves differently than predicted. VictoryShares ETFs distributed by Victory Capital Services, Inc. (VCS).
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