Though my content covers a wide range, one recurring area of interest is CPG (consumer packaged goods). In one TikTok video, I made-up the term “shoppy shops” to describe specialty retail stores that carry a curated selection of trendy CPG brands. “Shoppy shops” stuck, and became part of the TikTok common vocabulary.

Emily Sundberg, a writer in New York, caught wind of the shoppy shop buzz, and reached out to interview me for a story about CPG and retail. Her story, titled “Welcome to the Shoppy Shop,” was published in Grub Street (part of New York Magazine) on January 25, 2023.

https://www.grubstreet.com/2023/01/why-every-shoppy-shop-looks-exactly-the-same.html

Neil Shankar, a designer at the company formerly known as Square, has a term for these types of stores: shoppy shops. He told me the name resonated on his TikTok page, which dissects the consumer-packaged-goods industry. “There didn’t really seem to be a name for all these artisanal markets that are popping up that carry these brands,” he said. “You could walk into any one of these shoppy shops and you see Graza, you see Brightland, you see Diaspora, you see Fishwife. So there is kind of this symbiotic relationship between these modern brands and the curated shops that carry them.”

Her story was the digital cover story on nymag.com and grubstreet.com. It was the #1 most-read story in Grub Street when it was published in January, and finished the year at #3.

https://www.grubstreet.com/2023/12/grub-street-top-20-stories-2023.html