Postmodernity hits retail

For reasons still unknown to me, I've been getting Display and Design Magazine for years now (here at work). It's an odd magazine for me to be getting - very "high concept" retail. Anyway, like many mags, the editor gets in the inside front cover to talk about ... whatever she wants. In the first issue of 2007, her article is entitled "Four Trends for the Future". Talk about postmodernism! ...
She never identifies what she's talking about in modern/postmodern terms, but she lays out the case for postmodernity hitting the world of retail nicely.

For example, trend 1 is "Go Slow". She talks about "slow food", "slow cities", and "slow retail" (if you're not familiar with these concepts, you should be - click here - slow food or here - slow cities for more info). She ends her discussion with "The message from the entire Slow Movement is slow down - enjoy life". Most postmoderns are fed up with rampant consumerism and materialism. Nice to see some of this impacting the retailers themselves in a positive way.

She also talks about Indies - whether independent films or independent hardware stores - and how "smaller store sizes also are becoming popular". Her last two points are "Social Networking" ("stores become hubs for social networks for specialized groups of consumers, providing ways for customers to meet and connect") and "New Humanism", wherein people - not just the profits - actually matter. She points to a Starbucks ad that reads, "High ideals don't have to conflict with the bottom line: owned and operated by Human Beings".

So community, richness of environment, social concerns, quality (over quantity) of life, etc... Sound like familiar themes to anyone?

If retailers are starting to figure out what makes postmoderns tick, why is there such deafening silence within the walls of churches?

Hatushili