NYC's Erewhon Dupe Sells $500 Merch
CPG Brands Love of TikTok Shop, Exercise Vacations, Expensive Grocery Store Merch, Handwritten Branding, and NYC's Hottest New Nightclub
GM everyone. Have you heard about the hottest new nightclub in New York? It’s a little placed called Dave & Buster’s.
Saturday night I went to Bar Bête for dinner and drinks. Its in Carol Gardens so its a little out of the way, but their French food is to die for. Here’s the perfect pairing—
Duck fat potatoes
Little salad (gem lettuce, mushrooms, dill)
Tuna tartare on toast
Duck breast
Yellow cake (one of the best I’ve had in New York)
After, we went to Dave & Buster’s in Atlantic Terminal. I haven’t been to a place like that since I was kid, but once the credits were loaded up and the beers started flowing, the games began. There is something so refreshing about spending a primetime Saturday night in NYC killing Terminator robots (graphics look like they’re from 2007) and breaking a sweat playing Dance Dance Revolution.
In the coming weeks, I’m going to take the leap and head to the Times Square D&B. I’ll report back if its better. The Brooklyn one didn’t have ski ball which was a bummer.
F*ck all these membership clubs and lines, Dave & Buster’s, beers, and great friends is all you need.
Beyond that, I spent attempting to do some shopping at Two Bridges Mall and encountered this really cute dog.
OKAY NEWS—
Brands are still embracing TikTok as the ban looms. TikTok Shop has been a major new distribution channel for e-commerce brands across categories, bringing in $396 million in sales in the health & beauty sector alone last year. Rare Beauty, Selena Gomez’s skincare brand, just held a pop-up in Los Angeles over the weekend in collaboration with TikTok Shop. The split screen between influencers filming content in a bright pink Melrose storefront and politicians declaring TikTok a national security threat was a jarring split screen, and a clear example of the complacency of brands as the potential ban looms. The reality is, TikTok Shop is a major source of revenue for brands, and 9 months is more than enough time to capitalize on the platform before it gets banned, which could be complicated with a potential sale or court battles. Brands are still going to be dedicating resources to TikTok, and will pivot once the future becomes clearer. The CMO of RareBeauty is a Who Do You Know? subscriber so if you read this, reach out, I have some questions.
New York’s Erewhon dupe has really expensive merch. Happier Grocery is a high-end grocery store on Canal St. Its essentially New York’s Erewhon, and while it stocks every trendy CPG brand you love, and offers a delicious prepared foods section and smoothies (I had a strawberry matcha smoothie post-run and cold noodles and salmon on Saturday) it also offers a ridiculously expensive merch line. The baseball hat costs $100 the overshirt costs a staggering $500. In comparison, the typical Erewhon tote bag costs around $130 if you want to flex you live a bi-coastal life. I looked into why Happier Grocery’s merch line was so expensive (I wanted the baseball hat) and it appears the brand is lining their garments with Shieldex ® Bremen RS silk, a 99% silver material that HG claims, “could help in shielding naturally occurring and human generated electromagnetic waves.” So I guess Happier Grocery does think 5G causes cancer?
Are exercise vacations going to become a thing? While most people want to hit the beach for a few days and relax, the idea of letting go of the grind can be frustrating for many Type A freaks like myself. I can’t let some sunshine and Pina Coladas knock me off my hustle. But there may be a new vacation experience perfectly tailored for my fellow Equinox brethren. Chris Black traveled to Dubai to stay at the One Za’abeel, a luxury development focused on providing guests with a unique fitness experience. The resort features cryotherapy, incredible gym amenities, a spa, trainers, healthy foods, and poolside hookah of course.
For the next three days, my life revolved around morning in-room cardio, healthy meals, the sauna, cold plunge, and several different recovery treatments. This was my white sand beach.
As wellness continues to pervade our cultural discourse, I could see this concept really blowing up. Often times when I am stressed and feel like I need a ‘break’ what I actually need is to spend time locking in, working out, and recovering in a beautiful location with top-tier service, not drowning myself in more alcohol on a beach.
Handwritten brands are all the rage right now. The Brand Identity wrote a great deep dive on the trend of messy, handwritten brands launching. Radford, is a skincare brand whose packaging and campaigns feature a distinctly minimal color palette and a handwritten logo and copy.
It works well for the brand as they claim to only dedicate time to making a great product, not designing it. As we have seen more brands take a polished approach to their look, this anti-design style will stick out and can make a unique impression. The ad certainly stands out.
Lastly, major shout out to
who featured Who Do You Know? In her immensely popular and incredible newsletter After School.OKAY BYE SEE YOU TOMORROW!
Jake Bell is a content marketing and creative strategist based in NYC. He specializes in content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
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Palm Heights is big on exercise vacations too! I def think it's the next big thing.