The New Consumer

Exploring how and why people spend their time and money. Analysis, trends, and (new) advisory services. Founded by @FromeDome.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Thorne’s packaging design is nearly perfect and deserves extra credit (en route to its pending $3.8b acquisition by @ProcterGamble).

Surgically clean yet stylish, @ThorneHealth looks both like a medical-grade brand that would be at home in a hospital, and like a @newconsumer product that you’d find at @WholeFoods.

It signals trustworthiness and quality, but is clear and approachable — just a great balance.

More → https://t.co/mkYkK6Swdx

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

The 25 brands consumers most identify with — and the 25 they aspire to: https://t.co/KiSdtf78hU

Nike is who they are. Gucci is who they want to be.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

A third of Americans say they’re in “optimization mode.”

They exercise four days a week. They also drink.

They chase protein, and they’ll wait 30 minutes in line for a bagel.

Meet the Optimizers. →

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Meet the Optimizers: https://t.co/fmvQOSvkL7

In our Consumer Trends research, a third of Americans identify as being in ‘optimization mode’.

They want max health and max pleasure, and are willing to pay for it.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Introducing the Consumer Trends 2026 Mid-Year Report: https://t.co/gJEDSZJF63

Peptides, protein, and meet the Optimizers!

My latest collab w/ Coefficient Capital. 93 slides, free to read and download.

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

Smart water →

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Loonen is the bottled water that hot-girl influencers, Volvo moms, and detail-obsessed product nerds can agree on: https://t.co/H3sHMw8skQ

“I might be 90% plastic at this point,” founder Clara Sieg says, “but my daughter isn’t.”

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Loonen is the bottled water that hot-girl influencers, Volvo moms, and detail-obsessed product nerds can agree on: https://t.co/H3sHMw8skQ

“I might be 90% plastic at this point,” founder Clara Sieg says, “but my daughter isn’t.”

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

In our latest @newconsumer / Coefficient Capital survey of 3,000 Americans, high-protein pasta hit the rare "good idea" quadrant.

One of the few categories that people in our survey both see as a natural fit for protein and actually want to try:

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

One of my favorite slides from our @newconsumer reports is this one where Shein shoppers claimed to be more environmentally conscious than the average American in our survey:

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

Why everyone’s launching a beverage brand: https://t.co/QS2pkR3agW

It’s easy to enter, hard to win, and the prize is huge.

Sounds like Powerball, but it’s the $250+ billion US beverage market.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

The Claude Code / OpenClaw prosumer effect: Claude has a fraction of ChatGPT’s paid users, but they're spending ~3x more on a per-user basis.

In March, the average paid Anthropic customer spent $63 — real money! — vs. $22 for paid OpenAI customers, according to consumer card transaction data from @ConsumerEdge.

The gap in per-user spending widened last year as Claude Code and OpenClaw drove a prosumer wave, accelerating user and spending growth for Anthropic.

Meanwhile, OpenAI is moving in the opposite direction w/ a cheaper ChatGPT plan and ads.

More at @newconsumer: https://t.co/KigPkNyW0J

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

Claude is getting consumers to spend real money on AI: https://t.co/Ft3GR1smWB

ChatGPT and Claude look like the same product. They’re becoming very different businesses.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

It’s actually pretty easy to make a list of brands generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue — even more than a billion — in DTC e-commerce sales.

@wearehims reported $2.2 b in US revenue last year, up 53%. @onequince said its total revenue passed $1 b last year. @hungryroot announced $700 mm.

Here’s how a broader set of brands performed last year.

This is each brand’s estimated online sales for 2025, as provided by @ConsumerEdge, which tracks US consumer credit and debit card spending. I’ve indexed Quince to 100, so you can get a relative sense of how the following brands performed last year.

The truth is more complex and nuanced than “DTC brands didn’t work.”

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

DTC isn’t dead — it’s just different now: https://t.co/fyWe2z9BbL

I wrote about what’s actually working, what didn’t happen, and why distribution wins championships.

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

DTC isn’t dead: https://t.co/VMvDeXt2oG

It’s just different now.

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Grüns built a successful omnichannel distribution network on the way to its acquisition by @Unilever for a reported $1.2 billion, with more than 7,000 retail doors in addition to Amazon.

But its DTC site has also grown rapidly, and is about to overtake the OG daily greens brand, @drink_AG1, according to Consumer Edge card spending data.

"Why @grunsdaily won" at @newconsumer: https://t.co/m3xgfTTsnM

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

On @Whatnot, the live shopping platform, snacks and candy sales have grown ~30% m/m since last July, while transactions grew 2.5x.

@garyvee sold out 1,055 units of “Heat Wave” gummies in minutes.

More in the Live Shopping Update, presented by Whatnot: https://t.co/0lxFmMttn9

[The New Consumer @newconsumer]

The next 40 million GLP-1 users: https://t.co/ZZJ5dyPhW3

How they’re different and what it means for food businesses.

Also: Why Grüns won. @grunsdaily

[W. David Marx @wdavidmarx]

I think this is a good example of why "trends" are so confusing

As Dan points out, there is no significant change in broad consumer behavior around smoking.

But you could argue that smoking has restored some of its *cachet* because of its return to a few high status contexts

[Dan Frommer @fromedome]

Is smoking really back?

Sorry to disappoint…

(No.)

https://t.co/lQB9H1ELZE