1 big thing: How vanity will save retail

2. Retail inequality: Tribal shopping

3. What Amazon will do next

4. Retail's risky obsession with wealthy millennials

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5. The store of the future is a supermarket

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6. Indie bookstores flourish in an Amazon world

7. Generics are the new brands

Animated illustration of a neon sign with a Heinz bottle, Coca-cola bottle, and Campbell's soup can turning generic. 

Welcome to our look ahead at how we'll shop: What we buy and how it will reflect and drive some of the biggest trends in society and the economy. 

Our thanks to Axios' Steve LeVine, Erica Pandey and Harry Stevens for leading this project.

Thank you for reading. For more on the subject — and for sharing individual stories — we have a special section on our website. Go deeper.

Deep Dives

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A deeper look at the biggest topics impacting the future

Axios AM Deep Dive

Deep Dive

National

Data: SurveyMonkey online poll; Chart: Harry Stevens/Axios

Millennials get blamed for killing a lot of things — including shopping malls, with their reliance on out-of-fashion department stores. But an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll shows that Millennials and their yet-unnamed successor generation may not be to blame after all.

The bottom line: When you spot a group of teenagers using an abandoned mall for indoor skateboarding rather than shopping, try to remember — this really isn't their fault. 

The youngest age group, born anywhere from 1995-2001, are most likely to regularly shop in malls, followed by core Millennials — ages 25-34.

The physical act of shopping is still popular with the general population — 63% said they prefer to shop in stores.

Even so, people shop online more frequently than they do at shopping malls specifically, regardless of age or income.

Income is a more important factor than age when it comes to whether or not people prefer to shop online, with higher income consumers of all ages more likely to prefer online shopping. 

Methodology: This SurveyMonkey online poll was conducted Jan. 9-10 among a national sample of 2,629 adults. Respondents for this survey were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Data were weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States.

Sorry, Millennials didn't kill your mall

An Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds that young people still shop in malls.

Retail

Axios Pro: Deals

Millennials get blamed for killing a lot of things — including shopping malls, with their reliance on out-of-fashion department stores. But an <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Axios/SurveyMonkey poll" data-vars-click-url="https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-retail-poll/" data-vars-content-id="89511162-f43f-475e-a241-0c755ef73b90" data-vars-headline="Sorry, Millennials didn&#x27;t kill your mall" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/axios-retail-poll/" target="_blank">Axios/SurveyMonkey poll</a> shows that Millennials and their yet-unnamed successor generation may not be to blame after all.The bottom line: When you spot a group of teenagers using an abandoned mall for indoor skateboarding rather than shopping, try to remember — this really isn&#x27;t their fault.

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Meg Marco

Stories

Sorry, Millennials didn't kill your mall

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Future of Retail Deep Dive — How vanity will save shopping — Stores for two Americas