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Cyber Monday is behind us and we are now firmly in that surreal space between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, where retailers go hog wild for in-store holiday decorations and Mariah Carey’s immortal hit makes some Scrooges wish for death. But before we all retreat to our winter wonderlands, we need to look back on an a unique Cyber Monday in our very unique era.

It’s a set of personal questions that have enormous economic implications, one asked on family Zoom calls and in market research surveys alike: Have you received your stimulus check yet? How have/will you spend it?  I’ve saved mine thus far, my best friend just bought a Yamaha keyboard with his. My mother paid down some debt, and a dear friend who has been out of work since the lockdowns began put his directly toward rent. 

Exercise is a touchy subject in your humble blogger’s home these days. Every day, my boyfriend tries to lead by example, doing innumerable squats, pushups, and planks throughout the day, looking up at me hopefully. Is today the day I get on the ground with him, his hopeful eyes seem to ask (spoiler: no, today is not the day).  

A lot happened this weekend, just like it seems to be happening every day for a while now. Zoom was revealed to be a security liability, GrubHub is facing some tough PR over the fees it charges restaurants, and there are early rumors that Apple may be looking to acquire Disney(!). Oh and Will Oremus over at Medium finally solved the great toilet paper mystery once and for all. 

We are doing things a bit differently this year. As you may have noticed, we have done away with our Pre-Holiday Reports, retiring them after five great years of forecasting and exploring purchase intentions. Our reasoning: Pre-Holiday Reports, we have heard from our Retail industry and CPG industry clients, do not provide adequate time to put insights into action—by the time shoppers have shaped their holiday purchase intentions, retailers have necessarily already completed their holiday preparations.