A new grocery store in Austin, In.gredients, is looking to change the way we buy our food. Shoppers are expected to bring their own packaging - typically jars and tupperware from home - and purchase loose items by weight, selecting from a wide range of meats, dairy, grains, spices and other items. Beer and wine will even be available on tap for those who bring their own growlers or bottles.
BitCoin is a new form of currency whose backers hope it will replace not only PayPal, but also real-world money itself, in online transactions. This idea has appeared before - Beenz and Flooz have previously attempted this feat - but BitCoin has some interesting tricks up its sleeve.
Do you know what the future of social media holds? This week we sent two members of our team (Dave B. and Dave C., a.k.a. "the Daves") to ReadWriteWeb's annual 2WAY summit at Columbia University in search of insights about digital technologies and social media.
In many ways, we're on the threshold of a new phase of the social media boom. 71% of the US population is on Facebook. 89% of US adults are using some form of social media, and 88% of companies are communicating with them. As this technology nears saturation, brands will need to find new ways to stand out from the crowd.
We recently sent a team member to the Food 2.0 conference, a daylong series of panels here in NYC that looked at the growing relationship between food and technology. With all that we learned, "growing" might be too gentle a word - the relationship between food and tech is booming!
Kosher food has been marching into the mainstream for about a decade, but lately the pace seems to have accelerated. In fact 13% of the adult population now regularly purchases kosher food, a group that includes (among others) Muslims, vegetarians and people with food allergies. Why the sudden kosher boom? On reason could be consumers' increasing concerns about food safety, and the generally held perception that kosher food is made to a higher standard.
Congratulations - you've survived the winter! As the days of trudging through snowdrifts and slush fade into memory, it's understandable that your feet might be yearning to slip into anything but another pair of stuffy, functional boots. The fashion world must be feeling the same way - we're seeing a boom in clever, innovative footwear this spring featuring bright colors, athletic functionality, and sometimes even a green twist.
Eco-Kicks
On March 4, 1991 Consumer Eyes opened its doors for business. Though it sometimes feels to us like that was just yesterday, it's not. So, as we look forward to the next twenty years, let's take a glance back.
Lately, when something cool is happening on the New York food scene, it usually turns out to be happening somewhere in the vicinity of Madison Square Park (at 5th Avenue and 23rd Street). The park is the annual home of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party – which brings together the country’s top pitmasters and over 100,000 die-hard barbecue enthusiasts every June – and every week seems to bring fresh proof that this unassuming corner of NYC is at the forefront of many current culinary trends.
There's no doubt we're living in high-tech times, and raising a next generation at home with touch screens, interactive media and virtual everything. Which makes it all the more refreshing to see that the most recent trend among pre-teens is the wearing, collecting, trading and sharing of... rubber bands.
In a world where everyone seems to have the same iPod, what’s a status-hungry, badge-seeking hipster supposed to do? Focus on how the music gets from iPod to ear.
High Fashion
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