That time is still now. This one is especially fun, because two words after assuring us it "has literally sold out everywhere" she tells gullible viewers that you can buy it at the store she's being paid $5 to promote.

They've been joined by a much younger demographic. Now Gen Z aspiring social media influencers on TikTok taking a break from making videos complaining that they don't have it as easy as Gen X or prior age groups and will never be able to afford a house are spending more of their income on expensive snack foods than any other group. In the past, Gen X spent the most on food, that is the sweet spot age demographic because they came after Baby Boomers (who wanted electric everything and more science, except for DDT and nuclear energy, but still remembered hearing about the Depression) and before Millennials, who suffered Green Fatigue due to Boomer Environmentalism telling them for their entire lives that the modern world was killing them. Gen X is overwhelmingly responsible for the success of Big Organic because they had both money and belief that The Ancients knew better and all those periods of famine and death in the past were just corporate narratives.

$19 smoothie 'crafted' by the mind of a d-list celebrity? Check. Put it in a glass canning jar, that somehow has a handle, to seem folksy? Check. You are ready to show the world you went to Erewhon. Image: Storyblocks.
Gen Z don't care about fake health claims or ridiculous assertions like that prestige food uses no pesticides, they only care about being able to tell people who much their snacks cost. Unlike Millennials, they don't want a new Samsung phone, they want their friends to see pictures of them waiting to buy a $50 box of cereal. They don't resent the inflation caused by the Biden administration printing money, ironically claiming it would lower inflation, they lean into it. They defy it and are willing to work two jobs to show they don't care how much the government has wrecked the economy for all but the wealthy in the stock market.
It's downright refreshing, the ultimate carpe diem mentality compared to the optimism of Boomers, the cynicism of Gen X, and the despondence of Millennials. I bet they are even saving money. A $45 can of potato chips sounds ridiculous but Gen X resonated with "Sex and the City" and its 'spend now and inflate the debt away' mentality so had no problem spending $2,000 on a purse or waiting in line to drop $1,200 on a phone.
Watching them gush about their expensive orange is a lot less tedious than people who watched that dopey Morgan Spurlock "Super Size Me" movie and started eating avocado toast points and refusing vaccines for their kids because they believed the type of food harms you, not the calories.
Every Food For Elites trend is lucrative for companies. Whole Foods, the Mecca of the $135 billion organic food industry, was founded by a guy so right-wing Ayn Rand would have told him to ease back a little, but he took the left's distrust of science, rampant need to showcase wealth, and gullibility right to the bank. His chain alone got so large it was bigger than the Monsanto their customers insisted gave their dogs cancer. And food fetishist nexus Erewhon is using the same model. They had $17 million profit last year - per store.
Yayyy capitalism, especially when it's exploiting rich progressives in California and New York City. But Gen Z, seriously, don't get a second job to pay for those potato chips.
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