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In early May, after eight weeks in quarantine, Italy embarked on fase 2 of its coronavirus response and, step by step, relaxed its restrictions. From that day, families were once again allowed to meet one another, and restaurants could reopen, if only for takeout. Most shops, bars, and museums reopened in mid-May, while schools and nurseries remained closed. Physical distancing, though, has remained in effect.
A week earlier, on Friday, April 24, the Commune of Milan announced its vision of urban life after lockdown. In Milan—the cultural and economic powerhouse of the country—city planners envisage a radical reconfiguration of urban space. Pre-corona, two million people were using public transportation in the city every day. Post-corona, that number will need to go down to half a million to keep people a safe distance apart. Additional cycling lanes will be rolled out, and the speed limit for cars will be lowered to 30 kilometers per hour across the city. That is a massive reduction in the flow of people through the arteries of a city. Where will they go and what will they do there? The plan was that instead of taking the subway to work, visiting La Scala, or patronizing one of the glitzy shops in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the grand 1870s shopping arcade opposite the Milan Cathedral, most people will work at home, go to local shops, and listen to street musicians and chamber quartets in their local square.
Six hundred miles north of Milan, in Wolfsburg, Germany, on the following Monday, at 6:30 in the morning, 8,000 workers made their way through the gates of the Volkswagen plant and resumed exactly where they had stopped five weeks earlier: making VW Golfs. By the end of May, half the workforce was back at the factory.
The contrasting scenes in Milan and Wolfsburg reflect the contradictions at the heart of consumer capitalism in the age of the coronavirus. The two strategies are clearly incompatible. If people do most of their work, shopping, and leisure within a 15-minute walk of their home, they will probably not buy a new car anytime soon. Milan looks toward pedestrianization, rinaturalizzazione, diffusion, and flexibility. Yet VW’s faith in future demand may not be completely misplaced. With airports shut, public transportation a potential source of contagion, and beaches closed or access rationed, people may very well want to buy more private cars to visit friends and family or to escape safely to the countryside.
What will the future of consumption look like? Will there even be a future? Three scenarios are making the rounds. For optimists, the current crisis is like a momentary cut in a film. There will be a short intermission and a fair bit of pain, but (with the help of central banks and generous stimulus outlays) the celluloid will be taped back together again, and then we will resume watching the story of our lives where we left off. Unlike other crises—say, an earthquake or a war—the coronavirus did not destroy machinery and infrastructure. All of Germany talks of the need to hochfahren or “boot up” the economy, tourism, and much else, as if we are dealing with a computer or a machine that can simply be switched back on. The Bank of England also assumes a “rebound.” The 2020 lockdown will destroy 14 percent of gross domestic product, it says, but don’t be scared: In 2021, we will be back and grow 15 percent! As one friend put it, “People have short memories. Soon they will all book their next cruise.” Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, said in early June that British quarantine rules were “rubbish,” and that the budget airline would continue to operate flights as scheduled regardless.
Then there are the doomsayers. To them, the world was already on a cliff edge in 2019. Globalization had been in retreat, productivity stagnant, and spending squeezed. The lessons of the 2008 financial crisis had not been learned. The coronavirus, in this view, is now pushing us over the edge, into a downward spiral of recession, mass unemployment, collapsing demand, poverty, conflict, and war.
Finally, there are the alternative optimists. To them, the crisis will pull down consumer capitalism but, luckily, in its place bring forth a nirvana of greater self-sufficiency, environmental stewardship, and social justice. Finally, the air is clean and the birds are singing. Lockdown, in this view, is shaking people out of their materialist slumber, exposing all the “false needs” they had been brainwashed into, and teaching them to focus on their “real” needs instead: health, family and friendship, and baking bread. This view, it is worth noting, is not limited to environmentalists, critics of neoliberalism, and disciples of simple living. It is shared by some retail analysts. “If I sat here for the last three months,” one British consultant said, “and I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes or a handbag, maybe it wasn’t as important as I thought it was?”
What is clear is that we are dealing with an unprecedented crisis. At the time of writing, almost all rich societies have had a taste of lockdown. In addition to the initial countermeasures taken to slow the spread of contagion, and flatten the pandemic’s curve of lethal exposure, there will be a second and, perhaps, third wave of the virus to worry about. People have flocked to parks and beaches and joined protest marches. Still, all countries that have come out of lockdown continue to have various restrictions in place, from limiting numbers in bars and entertainment venues to the prohibition of group sport and leisure. Scientists have warned that some physical distancing measures may need to remain in effect until 2022. Even Sweden and South Korea, which allowed shops and restaurants to stay open in spring, have not been able to escape commercial meltdown. Fewer people eat out in South Korea today than last year, and a sudden rise in the number of infections prompted a shutdown of bars in early May. Shopping malls in Stockholm are half empty; H&M sales fell by half in Denmark and Finland, but even in Sweden, without a lockdown, they dropped by a third.
Wherever we look, figures and forecasts are getting more dire by the day. In the first quarter of 2020, the U.S. economy shrank by 4.8 percent, and 30 million filed for unemployment benefits between mid-March and early May. Spain is suffering the biggest recession since the Civil War (1936–39). Germany and Switzerland predict a 6 to 7 percent drop in GDP for the year. When I started this article in the middle of April, British forecasts were for a 6 percent drop in GDP. In early May, the Bank of England published its scenario that put it at 14 percent. This would be the worst recession the nation of shopkeepers has suffered for three centuries; by comparison, in the 2009 financial crisis, the British economy contracted by 4 percent. In Britain, a quarter of the workforce has been laid off; one million people applied for social benefits (Universal Credit) in the last two weeks of March alone. American and British estimates predict that consumption will drop by 15 percent this year, and some analysts think even that might be optimistic.
What makes the coronavirus so disruptive is not so much that it will take a few thousand dollars out of the pocket of the average customer this year; rather, it’s shaking the foundations on which modern consumer culture has been built over the last 500 years. The imperial trade in exotic goods, the lure of novelty and fashion, the expansion of comfort and convenience, and our accumulation and ever-faster replacement of possessions have been the result of a dynamic exchange between the local and global, the home and the city, public and private. Bright, colorful cotton from India; porcelain cups from China; sugar, coffee, and cocoa from the Caribbean and Latin America; curtains and carpets, the tea party and coffeehouses, urban arcades, pleasure gardens, cinemas, and department stores—all of these depended on the joint movement of goods, people, and tastes. The Bon Marché, Selfridges, and other department stores around 1900 were not entirely revolutionary, but one practice they introduced proved critical to the later consolidation of a culture of consumption: the simple act of letting customers touch the merchandise. Contemporaries compared them to ocean liners—and that is, of course, precisely why some have remained closed and, in several cases, will stay closed forever.
The virus has effectively stopped several pistons of consumer economy at once. Tourism and mobility, restaurants and retail, live entertainment and sports: Each of these is a big sector in its own right, but together they are enormous. In the United States, 6 percent of total consumer spending is on restaurants and hotels alone, and another 4 percent goes to recreation. Italy, Austria, and Spain each make about 14 percent of their GDP from tourism, Greece as much as 20 percent. Retail experts forecast that 20,600 British stores (with a quarter of a million jobs) will have closed their doors by Christmas. Germany has some 70,000 hotels and restaurants. How many of these will survive the crisis? In Germany, some theaters are reopening, but with only half the seats. Sporting events are gradually resuming, but behind closed doors. Broadway is not expected to reopen until 2021.
What makes the virus so damaging is its synchronized effect on activities that mutually depend on mobility and proximity. Fewer tourists and business travelers translate into fewer hotel and restaurant guests and fewer visitors to shops, special exhibitions, concert halls, and musicals. Take the cruise, for example. Cruises took off 30 years ago. Last year, 30 million passengers sailed the seas. They generated $68 billion in direct expenditure where they docked—spending on excursions, trinkets, and shopping, along with all the food and drink and supplies bought for the ships. The Mediterranean and Baltic routes are now almost as popular as the Caribbean. Half a million passengers embarked last year in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, which has just over one million inhabitants. The MSC Meraviglia alone carries 4,500 passengers to Norway. You can argue whether the 15-deck, 315-meter–long behemoth deserves its name (“Wonder”), and cruises and airplanes carrying package tourists are big polluters. Still, the spectacular new music halls, arts festivals, and restaurants that have regenerated many Nordic cities are inconceivable without them.
When we think about the future of demand, though, we need to ask about its quality as well as quantity. What is all the demand made up of that we are so worried about? And how is life during and after lockdown changing the activities that result in demand? These may appear straightforward questions, but they are ones that economists and policymakers have been finding very hard to get their heads around. Many simply assume that we will “rebound” and gradually resume our lives more or less where we stopped before lockdown—as if the experience of isolation and ongoing distancing will not change how we consume (and what we “demand”) at all. At most, they assume that it will take a few months for people to flock back to restaurants. This is an extremely narrow view of consumers and how they lead their daily lives: All eyes are on the money in people’s pockets and how much makes it into the cash register. But consumption is not simply a reflection of how much money there is to spend. We need to know why people turn to certain goods and services in the first place. And disruption changes that.
The consumer is more than a customer. Home economists such as Hazel Kyrk a century ago understood this very well, but there is no harm in repeating it. Spending is just one element in the chain of consumption that connects motives, desires, and acquisition to our habits and what we do with the stuff we’ve got.
When it comes to motives, many commentators point their finger instinctively at status-seeking. This is an explanation that reaches back to Thorstein Veblen’s critique of the superrich and their “conspicuous consumption” in the United States during the Gilded Age, through Jean-Jacques Rousseau all the way to the ancients. We can all probably think of examples of such behavior—the designer handbag, the luxury watch, or any number of tech gadgets.
Showing off, of course, does exist, but it is only one of the drivers behind consumption. Possessions are also key for our “material self,” to use the concept coined by William James, the father of psychology. Our clothes, our car or bicycles, our phone, heirlooms, and souvenirs: These are not just the misguided expression of “false needs” but make us who we are. Consuming also functions as a cultural grammar we use to communicate social norms and values. Think of the family meal or the emerging custom of the virtual house party. Finally, a good deal of consumption is about “doing” stuff. It is about accomplishing a task and requires materials, competence, and infrastructures—in the case of baking: flour and yeast (if you can find them), kneading technique, an oven or a bread maker, recipes obtained via Google, a kitchen, gas and electricity, or at least charcoal.
The pillar of consumer culture hardest hit by lockdown and distancing is the city, the epitome of both proximity and mobility. Cities have been the beating heart of modern consumer culture, and their shops, restaurants, and cultural spaces are the crucial arteries for the circulation of goods and experiences. David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, saw that the pursuit of goods, sociability, and urbanization was symbiotic. The pursuit of “modest” luxuries, like porcelain cups or a fashionable dress, he wrote in 1752, made people more demanding and creative. In turn, “the more refined arts advance, the more sociable men become.” Their curiosity and taste will make them flock into cities to share their “knowledge … [and] to show their taste in conversation or living, in clothes or furniture.” They will form clubs and societies and seek to contribute to one another’s pleasure and entertainment. “Solitude,” or living “in a distant manner,” Hume wrote, was “peculiar to ignorant and barbarous nations.”
By shutting down cities, the coronavirus has switched off the urban pleasure economy. Take the widespread activities of going clubbing, to the theater, or to a sports match. These large gatherings are typically not isolated events but are often combined with dinner beforehand and a drink and conversation afterward. Restaurants have reopened in some countries—in Austria, a family can sit together at a table; in Italy, diners can eat behind plastic screens—but the chain between activities remains broken. What makes it so hard for restaurants, as for other sectors we will encounter, is that the lockdown is merely amplifying preexisting trends. High rents and a squeeze on consumer spending have left restaurants more vulnerable than ever. In Britain, 1,000 went bust in 2017 alone.
In this sense, the great coronavirus disruption turns out to be a great acceleration. Yes, from Vilnius to Manhattan, there are plans to help out restaurants in the next few months by opening up streets and public spaces to alfresco dining at a distance. But how this will work in November or February, or in more inclement places like Dublin or Oslo, is a big question, even if we pile up blankets or turn on environmentally unsustainable outdoor heaters.
Concert halls, clubs, and sport stadiums face an even bigger struggle—museums are, relatively speaking, in an easier position, and Chinese, German, and Italian museums have already reopened with timed passes. Even there, however, capacity is radically reduced; the Archaeological Museum in Milan allows only 15 visitors every half-hour. Chinese museums cap their numbers at 50 percent and require health certificates. Cultural venues do not have a simple takeaway option, although it might be nice to fantasize about bringing a Turner or a Sargent home with you for a while. Digital online galas, ghost football games, and Zoom dance parties are not quite the same as the real article; hence the many voucher plans they’ve cobbled together to sell future tickets.
In the 1970s, the economist Staffan Linder predicted that the rise of real wages would make people shift from time-intensive leisure activities (such as learning how to play a musical instrument) to gadgets that offered instant satisfaction. Reality turned out differently. Yes, people have bought more electronic toys, but more have also been singing in choirs, learning the violin, or joining writing classes than ever before.
Lockdown and physical distancing cuts through the umbilical cord between “live” and “reproduced” forms of cultural consumption. What will be the consequences? On the one hand, we may witness some democratizing effects. If operas and symphonies will now mainly be streamed online, they will (like yoga classes) be much cheaper to join. On the other hand, since going to the opera remains a source of distinction, elites are likely to try to preserve their status through alternative, more intimate, and safer formats, such as private performances for special and screened guests only, as is already happening among the very rich. In other words, we are in danger of ending up with a two-class system of culture consumption: digital galas, “drive-in” live opera, and digital docenting for the many; the real “live” thing for the few.
Instead of “drive-in,” it might be more sensible to promote “drive-out” and reverse the logic of mobility: Bring culture to the people where they live, obviously at a distance. If the Soviets were able to do it, why shouldn’t we? In fact, the annals of consumer culture are full of suggestive examples. We’ve just forgotten most of them. What else are the fair and the circus? You did not fly to distant lands to see a tiger; the tiger came to you. Early cinema was traveling entertainment and introduced audiences to the moving image at fairs, in church halls, and swimming baths. The library van, traveling musicians and acrobats, the local bandstand—these could all be revived and adapted to our times. Most countries still subsidize cultural institutions on an appreciable scale, and those institutions will fight hard to keep their public funding streams. In the future, these could be tied to more diffused and localized forms of consumption.
Tourism, to take but one high-consumption pastime, is caught in a perfect storm of mobility and proximity. Party destinations like Ibiza and Ischgl (its Austrian cousin in the snow, and one early hot spot of coronavirus infection) will need to rethink their identity radically. In late April, the Balearic Tourism Minister Iago Negueruela suggested the islands may still reopen to visitors later in the summer—but at a reduced capacity of 25 percent. Party resorts and beach clubs will face distancing rules. Starting in mid-June, Austria reopened its lakes and mountains to tourists from abroad, but excluded Britons, Swedes, and others from countries where infection rates remain high. Most countries have quarantine restrictions for travelers from a number of countries.
Where will the millions of tourists go who no longer will be able to fly to Ibiza or Ischgl? In Germany, “save our summer” is almost a national anthem and comes right after the call to “reboot the economy.” In 1948 and 1949, the famous Berlin airlift brought food and coal to people cut off in the Western zone of the city. Now, there is talk of a tourist-themed airlift—one that would fly Germans to their spot in the sun; the German government has negotiated a safe tourism “corridor” with Greece and Croatia. This is how mobile affluence has changed mindsets.
If mobility becomes more costly, this will probably favor single, longer holidays rather than hopping for a few days to Barcelona, Florida, or New York. Hotels will start to compete with one another over safe spaces and hygiene standards. In Madrid, one luxury hotel is considering a virus-testing station on the outside and more individualized service on the inside, including a special safe route to the rooftop. To meet distance rules, however, it will need to cut capacity in its bar and restaurant by a third and a half, respectively. Airbnb struggles, because it can only incentivize individual “hosts” to offer higher hygiene standards, rather than enforce them. In China, Airbnb bookings started to recover in April, but only partly. Shanghai tourist spots capped normal visitor numbers at 30 percent capacity.
This may look like environmental progress, but that is not a given. Consuming at a distance hits all forms of sharing alike, public and for-profit, sustainable and unsustainable. In Milan, bike and scooter sharing fell by 84 percent in April. True, in Beijing, the number of shared bike rides since the end of lockdown has climbed back to 63 percent of its earlier usage. A regularly disinfected bike is still better than public transportation. But if you have your own car, that’s a far safer option; according to one survey, twice as many Chinese people now use their private car than pre-corona.
So far, one site of serious socioeconomic friction in the crisis has been over the second home. In Brittany and Provence, some second-home owners had their cars vandalized—they had Paris license plates. In New York, the rich from Manhattan escaped to their summer houses on Long Island, causing local concerns about health services being overstretched. By giving access to mobility and outdoor space entirely new significance, the pandemic and post-pandemic shine a new flashlight on inequalities. In the first decade of this century, the number of Brits owning a second home abroad doubled. Every third new home built in Spain was a holiday home. There are some three million vacation homes in France. Who has access to them, and who has not? Ten percent of the population of Paris escaped to the country before lockdown went into effect, but 90 percent stayed behind.
Karl Marx distinguished between the bourgeoisie who controlled the “means of production” and the proletariat who did not. Post-pandemic classes may well distinguish between the cottage-ariat who control the “means of distance” and the claustrophobiat who are stuck in a flat without outdoor space. The balconariat will be the new petit bourgeoisie.
Almost 8 percent of Spanish people spent their quarantine stuck in an interior apartment without so much as a view of the street, let alone a balcony. A new status hierarchy is emerging. And second homes and private cars go hand in hand in the era of the coronavirus.
Looking for analogies for such private retreats, commentators tend to invoke Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron (1353), set in a villa in the hills to which the protagonists had fled to escape the Black Death in Florence. Or they point to today’s superrich and their well-stocked bunkers. A closer example is the socialist German Democratic Republic with its cult of the Datscha. Here, too, mobility was restricted, though by state power and the Berlin wall, but this made the private cabin and private leisure all the more important. A crowning design enabled owners to pitch a tent on top of the roof of their flimsy Trabant car. In socialist Poland and Hungary, DIY and home decoration were similarly huge. This retreat into a private world of “a thousand little things” may be an understandable reaction in a society where public life is controlled by a socialist state. For liberal societies, built on toleration and public exchange, such an internal exodus would be nothing short of an existential crisis.
Shopping is a microcosm of the transformation of consumer culture taking place in front of our eyes. In Britain, April delivered the sharpest drop in sales since the 1990s—including both physical and online shopping. By the end of the month, four in 10 shops had shut completely. America’s J.Crew soon joined well-known British brands like Laura Ashley and Oasis in bankruptcy.
Here again, we are seeing an amplification of preexisting trends, not a revolution. Dinosaurs like the venerable Stockmann department store in Finland had been struggling for years. All the virus did was to finalize its restructuring. For the last decade, shops on the high street have suffered from rising rents, decreasing footfall, and growing online competition. In Britain, 30 pence of every pound spent on stuff other than food was already spent online before the crisis hit; for food, it was still only about 7. The pandemic is now introducing many more to ordering with a click. Once digital baskets are set up, it is easy to continue filling them. Retail experts predict that by the end of the year, online’s 30 percent will have grown. Trends in other countries are in the same direction. More shutters will go down on brick-and-mortar shops in city centers.
At the same time, the pandemic has given a new lease on life to independent local stores. When it comes to food, especially, online delivery systems were unable to satisfy all the orders coming their way. Corner stores proved more flexible and stepped into the breach. In France, in early April, online sales of food were up by 98 percent—but next came rural shops (37 percent) and urban mini-marts (superettes; 25 percent), while the big hypermarkets saw a fall of 3 percent. If you really want flour, yeast, or eggs, best try your luck in your neighborhood store. Small farm shops, dairies, butchers, and many others enjoyed a renaissance in many parts of the world. As with culture and entertainment, we may be seeing a new emerging symbiosis between the big platform providers such as Amazon and lots of small, flexible shops—diffusion matched with decentralization.
All the gains made by online shopping, however, will not be enough to compensate for the serious drop in sales in physical stores. In early April, the Centre for Retail Research threw its old forecast for Britain out of the window. Even after documenting a mini shopping boom after lockdown, the group predicts a nearly 5 percent fall in total sales by the end of the year, amounting to a total loss of £17 billion. That’s a lot of unsold merchandise and empty cash registers.
The repercussions of the great retail downturn will be widespread. To take just one example from the upper reaches of the retail market, many European luxury brands rely on Chinese customers to make up the difference between profit and loss. Gucci reopened its shops in China in early April, but its recovery looks partial at best. In China, luxury goods are not just about showing off but also about belonging—documenting that one has made it and arrived in the modern world. With China in recession, there will not only be a slowing down of frenetic urbanization and fewer new arrivals in the modern commercial wonderland. With trade and tourism disrupted, and international tension and xenophobia on the rise, the West and its branded symbols will lose some of their shine in the East. How many Chinese tour groups will in the next few years return to Milan and Lucerne to marvel at Italian accessories and Swiss watches?
Meanwhile, much of our working and domestic lives have moved online—and in the process, have come to mimic each other in ways that are both utterly predictable and quite surprising. What exactly is it that people are doing on their phones and computers at home in lockdown when they are not working? According to available data on U.S. and U.K. users collected at the end of March, most of what we now do is communication and entertainment—following the news (68 percent), listening to music (58 percent), watching movies (49 percent), playing games (40 percent). Twenty-eight percent of homebound digital consumers are searching for recipes, and 18 percent are watching fitness videos. These modes of domestic self-care were clearly more important than searching for fashion trends (16 percent) or vacations (12 percent). A survey asked 748 Canadians what they were doing more of. It hints at the emerging mix of physical and digital activities. Digital news and videos were on top (70 percent each) but followed by more reading (58 percent), more cooking (56 percent), and more time spent with family (51 percent); 44 percent played more video games, but 32 percent did more crafts. Stories from other countries suggest that some of these pursuits involve people rediscovering old hobbies, such as painting or playing with a train set.
At the same time, entire generations have been introduced to new digital technologies and forms of consuming—Houseparty had been popular with teenagers but has now been picked up by their parents; older generations are streaming opera and reading books online. Some of these new skills and revived habits are bound to stay. If, in addition, we assume that at least a portion of people will remain ensconced in their home offices, the new rhythm of physical-digital consumption will be with us for good.
In April, the Italian city of Florence asked families how they were doing with online education. Twelve percent said they found it difficult because they did not have enough tablets or computers for everyone in the household. This is a worrying figure in several ways—for the one in eight children who will be left behind, but also for what it tells us about the density of digital machines that affluent societies now take for granted. For it effectively means that 88 percent have enough multiple devices in their home to work, learn, and consume simultaneously. How many children and seniors who do not yet have a smartphone or a laptop will find one under the Christmas tree this December?
All our online work, streaming, house-partying, and exercise is made possible by vast data centers that depend on power and lots of cooling to prevent overheating. In 2018, the digital sector was responsible for 4 percent of the energy footprint and 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world (the same as aviation); in Europe, it is responsible for 10 percent of all electricity consumption. Then, experts predicted that the figures would stop rising, because people would switch from big computers to smaller, more efficient smartphones, and because there was a limit to the demand for video and other streamed services in “mature” markets. Those may have been reasonable assumptions in 2018, but they look silly now. Few parents today will want their children to write their essays on a smartphone, let alone to deprive themselves of the newest streamed miniseries.
So far, we have talked about the taste preferences and habits of people staying at home. But who lives in the home varies tremendously. Today, 40 to 44 percent of households in Sweden, Norway, and Finland are occupied by a single person; in Japan, it is 35 percent, in Germany, 42 percent; among rich consumer societies, the United States is an outlier to the overall trend of single-occupancy homes, with just 28 percent. In the fascination with the “sharing economy,” it was easily forgotten that housing—one of the most precious things in people’s lives—has been shared less and less in recent decades. The rise in solo living has had many causes. Some of it is involuntary and has to do with old age and being widowed, some with shifts in lifestyles among the young, some with housing policy. Living alone has big knock-on effects once there is the expectation that you should also have your own private washing machine, TV, and other appliances. In Finland, some new one-person apartments are built with their own private saunas.
When the coronavirus hit Europe, Swedes were joking that it would not be much of a problem for them, because they were naturally good at “social distancing”; since then, the number of deaths in Sweden, sadly, has far exceeded that of their neighbors. For people elsewhere, the question should be: Will the virus turn us into physically aloof Scandinavians? By promoting a habitus of keeping our distance, the virus may complete the triumph of solo living. Yes, the experience of isolation may push some to look for partners and roommates. But for many others, their own flat will now be their safe space. Architects and designers of “smart cities” had many innovative ideas about “co-living” arrangements, with shared kitchens, washing machines, and entertainment rooms. Who will want that now? In many existing co-living homes, communal areas are currently closed.
Lockdown has triggered a frenetic search for moral guidance and reassurance: Turn the crisis into an opportunity! Focus on the things that really matter! Contemplation, not consumption! As in the world Depression of 1929–32, our crisis has been good business for moral prophets and self-help guides. Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, preached that renunciation brings fulfillment. That is easy if you are isolating in a flat in Munich and have your own castle in South Tyrol to return to; Messner had flown in from Ethiopia, and his mountaineering feats are not entirely innocent when it comes to the cult of productive leisure.
How are people responding to these exhortations to make the best of isolation? The Finnish Literature Society has asked people to record their lives during the pandemic. For some, distancing has been liberating. “In a world that forces me to be an extrovert, I can finally be an introvert,” one 18-year-old woman wrote. For mothers with small children, by contrast, lockdown robbed them of the little solitude and leisure they had. A 32-year-old single woman said at the end of March that she was getting “really angry” at all those feel-good people telling everyone to focus on “the essentials” of life and that they were “all in it together.” For her, Covid-19 was not a liberation from a consumerist treadmill; quite the contrary, “Corona has taken (almost) everything from my life I enjoy—meetings with friends, cultural events, my hobbies, … the experience to meet new people, travel to other cities and countries.” The internet was a “lousy” substitute. People, in her view, had not pulled together but apart, with everyone spying on everyone else to check they kept their distance and did not meet with friends. For her, the pandemic meant “loneliness, anxiety and disappointment.”
The great coronavirus lockdown is clearly destined to change our lives as consumers—a change that will encompass not just how much but also how we consume. As we’ve seen, the quantitative downturns generated by lockdown conditions are grim though relatively straightforward. The greatest recession the world has seen in a century inevitably will hurt a lot, even with all the pain relief administered by central banks. People will have less money in their pockets, and at the same time prices for food and most other goods will rise. Since spending on health care is going up (also a form of consumption), this means households will have even less money to purchase other goods and services.
This is to say nothing of longer-term upheavals to our collective disposable income, such as a looming pension crisis for the elderly. At the same time, more households will depend on handouts and social transfers from the state; “public social spending” was around 23 percent in the rich world in 2019 and is unlikely to fall. And a 15 percent drop in consumption over the course of the year will leave a lasting footprint throughout the consumer economy. All the disinfected baskets and plastic sheets between seats and tables will only save so many shops, hotels, and restaurants. By the end of the year, many will be bankrupt and gone. We will be served by a new mix of online platforms, local stores, and private shoppers. Decentralization and flexibility will rule. The 24/7 consumer culture will triumph. Distancing is already leading to staggered service and more flexible opening times in shops and restaurants. Online work and consumption are carving up what is left of the weekend.
However, the qualitative effects of the crisis may well produce the longest-lasting impacts. We still reflexively tend to treat consumption as an output of work and money: We work and get paid, or receive benefits, and then we buy something. When economists and central bankers present their forecasts, this is the kind of thinking underpinning it. But consumption is also an input. The way we consume shapes the way we live and work. And the coronavirus is changing this. Lockdown is not a conveyor belt that initially moved activities into the home and then can presumably be reversed at the crisis’s end to roll them out again. Distancing is changing the nature, intensity, and distribution of activities. If just some people continue to do more cooking, jogging, reading, streaming videos, and drinking cocktails, but do less eating-out, take part in fewer group sports, and take fewer trips to music festivals and foreign lands, this will have major repercussions for our economy and culture. Many recovery forecasts currently rely on a brisk “bounce back” in the consumer economy; their tacit assumption is that people after lockdown will tighten their belts but otherwise resume their old habits. But history shows that this is not very credible. We know from wars, droughts, and energy crises that such disruptions are not temporary breaks; they are instead force multipliers that simultaneously amplify earlier trends and reorder daily life in ways that carry on thereafter.
When we talk of the “new normal,” it is easy to forget that the “old normal” was once new. The notions that each person should have their own home, eat out, fly to Ibiza, exercise, take at least one hot shower a day, and change their clothes constantly—these are not inborn human rights, and were indeed regarded as exceptional before they established themselves as normal. The history of consumer culture since 1500 is a succession of many such new normals. They come and go, but they are never simply the result of changes in getting and spending. They have been aided and steered by politics and power.
Our taste for sugar and coffee, for example, would have been inconceivable without the brutal intervention of empires, slavery, and plantations. Likewise, the fact that the majority of people in the rich world right now live in their own home, have mortgages, and look at their electrical gadgets or a loaf of bread baking in their oven would be impossible to explain without reference to public policy support for homeownership, the purchase of the first refrigerators, and investment in infrastructures. The mass diffusion of TV sets, private cars, and modern bathrooms since the 1950s was not just a clever plot by Madison Avenue; it was made possible in part by the rise of welfare and unemployment benefits, public pensions, and public housing. Via such critical subsidies, the postwar state helped ordinary and vulnerable people to get a foot on the ladder of consumer society.
Our own still-evolving new normal will similarly depend on what kind of lifestyle our states, cities, and we as citizens want to promote in the new age of distance consumerism. Do we want a “rebound” or a new direction? Are we going to invest in new runways or in bike lanes; make balconies and allotments part of new housing standards or leave such questions to be answered by the market? Will we subsidize drive-in opera or local music schools? Can we provide communal sports grounds with body temperature monitors or reserve those for the professionals? Do we plan to give people the right to roam across fields and beaches as long as they keep their distance, and will we continue to protect second-home owners’ right to exclusive privacy? We are looking at a long list of possibilities that cry out for public debate, political vision, and leadership.
Unfortunately, we have seen very little of it so far. From Manhattan to Milan, mayors have made a pitch for more walking and cycling. National governments, by contrast, have mainly distinguished themselves by silence or by competing with one another about who can get their citizens back to shops and beaches as soon as possible. A charitable explanation for this uneasy stasis would be to say that, of course, governments have been under unprecedented pressure and had to focus on the immediate public health crisis. How could one expect them to lay out visions of the future when tens of thousands of their citizens are dying? Fair enough. But hidden in the forecasts and the way governments have been looking at the future after lockdown, we can also see certain protocols of thought that are instinctively favoring certain ideas of normality and editing out alternative futures.
In the United Kingdom and Sweden, especially, ministers have talked about the need to adapt public health policy to their societies’ code of “behavior.” In this context, “behavior” has mainly stood in as a crude version of behavioral economics and reduced possible instruments of intervention to one form or other of state-assisted “nudging” in the formulation of former Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein. Nudging has undoubtedly worked in solving some particular problems; the classic case in the United Kingdom is the switch in 2015 from “opt-in” to “opt-out” pensions that has raised the number of people saving for retirement. That is all for the better.
Unfortunately, the challenges presented by our current and future lifestyle represent an entirely different scale of social problem. The U.K. Behaviour Insights team, which was formed by the British government in 2014 and also has offices in New York, Sydney, and Singapore, came up with two practical recommendations in the course of April. One proposal used behavioral insights to create a text service for the National Health Service. The other plan allowed for online delivery companies to use a preset default to nudge people to choose having no contact with the delivery person. At a time of major crisis, when we are wondering how we can or should live in the future, these efforts seem woefully out of proportion, and indeed more than “loneliness, anxiety and disappointment.”
I say all this as a historian who has dabbled in the social sciences, not as an economist or psychologist. I tend to deal with the past, not with forecasts or behavioral laboratory experiments. But I do know how societies in the past tackled crises and thought about the future. And I can assure you that many of them had more insight, vision, and courage to change their ways of living than we hear today from our leaders and their chosen experts. One of my favorite examples comes from Japan. In 1919, the Everyday Life Reform League (Seikatsu kaizen dōmeikai) was formed. Set up by the Home Ministry, the league had support from architects, schools, local communities, and housewives’ associations. It set out to promote modern living, health, and thrift. League leaders urged homemakers to give up kneeling on the floor and cooking with polluting charcoal, in favor of standing upright in a modern kitchen that ran on clean electricity. Gift-giving, elaborate ceremonies, and male-only hobbies were to yield to rational budgeting and a focus on what today would be called “quality time” with the family. Of course, not all of their visions came true, nor should they have; the kimono has not completely disappeared. Still, anyone who has visited Japan will instantly recognize the triumph of many elements of the new-normal lifestyle sponsored by the league more than a century ago.
Far-reaching change is possible, in other words. But the success of the league also reminds us of the political resources and commitment required, not just from the state but from across civil society—including from ourselves, the consumers.
We are all consumers now. That is why we are at the same time so powerful and so powerless. Car manufacturers, by contrast, are a much more concentrated lobby. How we consume and live our lives is not just a private matter; it always creates profound repercussions for our communities, the nation, and the planet. The people who boycotted slave-grown sugar or clothes made in sweatshops understood this. In 1908, the first generation of consumer groups met for their international congress in Geneva. They had a simple motto written on their banner: “To live is to buy. Buying is power. Power is duty.” Their message is as relevant today as it was then: Consumers as citizens have power. Financial stimuli and credit holidays are welcome, but these economic measures can only do so much. At a time of unprecedented crisis like ours, we need more than ever to harness consumer power if we want to prevent the new normal from ending up a social and environmental disaster.


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The 2018 Jeep Wrangler prototype has finally been spotted out and about, and that means spy shots. Though clad in the customary camouflaging, the 2018 Wrangler prototype still betrays a few firm details about what to expect from the upcoming model, as well as fanning the flames of speculation and feeding into some truly exciting rumors. As the 2016 Jeep Wrangler’s popularity continues to grow, we expect even more attention to be directed at its upcoming heir.
You have to be careful when you’re updating the Wrangler. After all, few vehicles are so iconic. Luckily, the design team seems to have struck the right note; the basic formula and shape is the same, so this is an evolution rather than a revolution. Spy shots even revealed exposed door hinges, just like in the current model, despite that pesky camouflaging.
There’s also the distinctive raked-back windshield, although we’ve heard tales that it might have to lose its currently ability to fold down. All in all, though, the vehicle remains a body-on-frame truck with a solid front axle, and the characteristic front fascia has been deemed likely to remain. Better yet, the 2018 Wrangler will continue to be made in its longtime Toledo, Ohio, factory.
The basic design and structure of the Wrangler body isn’t changing, but there has been one rumor that trumps all others: We’re now led to believe that the 2018 model will boast aluminum-intensive construction. That would lead to a drop in weight, improved performance, and radically enhanced efficiency ratings.
We’ll also be receiving a new 8-speed automatic transmission system, another addition that aims at improving fuel-economy; fear not, the Wrangler should be retaining its powerful 3.6L Pentastar V6 engine, even as lesser rivals opt for 4-cylinders. However, we should be seeing two interesting additions in the future; a V6 turbo diesel and a mild-hybrid variant are expected.
The 2018 Jeep Wrangler Spy Shots Have Turned Heads Across the Country
The 2018 Jeep Wrangler will enter production late next year, and will soon be joined by a new pickup body style. Remember to keep checking back to find out more about what you can expect from the next generation of one of the world’s foremost off-road lines.

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Tupperware, the US maker of meals storage containers, has warned it faces going out of enterprise if it can not discover new funding.
Shares within the 77-year-old agency fell by nearly 50% on Monday after it warned of “substantial doubt” about its “means to proceed as a going concern”.
The US firm was warned on 3 April its shares have been at risk of being delisted from the New York Inventory Trade as a result of it had not but filed its annual report.
It has confirmed it might want to renegotiate its loans after already amending agreements thrice since August 2022.
CEO Miguel Fernandez mentioned in a press release: “Tupperware has launched into a journey to show round our operations and in the present day marks a essential step in addressing our capital and liquidity place.
“The corporate is doing every part in its energy to mitigate the impacts of latest occasions, and we’re taking instant motion to hunt extra financing and deal with our monetary place.”
The enterprise has been struggling lately to eliminate its old school picture and entice youthful clients by changing into extra environmentally pleasant.
Identified for its “Tupperware events”, the corporate beforehand offered its merchandise nearly completely by means of folks promoting the objects to family and friends of their house, or by means of its personal web site.
Its ranges now embody extra sustainable supplies akin to glass and stainless-steel and it makes some merchandise from used blended plastic waste that might have in any other case have ended up in landfills.
Final 12 months, it signed a take care of the US chain Goal to promote its merchandise in-store, nonetheless demand for house merchandise has fallen.


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THE KENNEL Club has issued a press release expressing its total opposition to the use in ‘training’ of a wireless crate known as the ‘Stay! Mat’, which it says will cause indefensible pain, fear and suffering to dogs.
The press release details how: ‘This abhorrent so-called training device works by detecting a dog’s weight and emitting electric shocks via a collar to the dog constantly from when it leaves the mat, until it returns. Designed for use in a house this mat is guaranteed to keep your dog confined to one small space from which it is not even able to take a step.
‘Although the collar emits a beeping sound before an electric shock, the mat is another sad example of how fear, pain and suffering can be used to restrict a dog’s movement to the extent that it would not even be able to take a step without being subject to distress.
‘Surely a beeping sound would not be enough to deter a dog from needing to go outside to go the toilet? Surely a beeping sound would not prevent a dog getting distracted by everyday household noises such as a doorbell? Surely common sense dictates that anybody who believes their dog should be subjected to electric shocks for such behaviour is not fit to be a dog owner?
‘The Kennel Club has heard all the arguments used to defend the indefensible electric shock collars. On what grounds could the use of an electric mat ever be justified? This is the question that the Kennel Club will, in the very near future be asking Defra and Parliamentarians.
‘The Kennel Club is heartened that 100 MPs have signed the Early Day Motion in Parliament that calls on the Government to ban the sale and use of electric shock collars and is confident that calling for a ban on electric Stay Mats will receive equal support.
‘In the meantime the Kennel Club would urge all readers to write to their MPs and let them know about the mats and why they, along with electric shock collars must be completely banned as part of the Animal Welfare Bill.
‘You can write to your MP at The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA. Write now for the sake of all dogs! You can find out who your local MP is by contacting the House of Commons switchboard on 020 7219 3000 or visiting http://www.upmystreet.com/commons


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Travel leaders have blasted the government’s decision to exclude France from the easing of quarantine for fully vaccinated amber list arrivals, with the new rules coming into effect on Monday (19 July).
The government on Friday (16 July) confirmed France would be placed in its own unique category, branded "amber plus" by the industry, whereby it remains on the amber list, but all arrivals will continue to have to self-isolate for ten days and submit to tests on days two and eight – even those who are fully vaccinated.
It follows a sharp rise in cases of the beta variant of Covid-19 in France.
Abta said the decision would "undoubtedly dent consumer confidence" in overseas travel at a vital moment for the industry’s hopes of recovery.
’We are about to see many amber-listed countries opening up for UK visitors in time for the summer holidays," said an Abta spokesperson.
"Continuing changes to travel restrictions will delay any meaningful recovery for the industry and this news is just the latest example of why a tailored package of financial support for the travel and tourism sector must be introduced.”
Gary Lewis, chief executive of The Travel Network Group, said the decision was the latest in a string of "catastrophic" government announcements for the travel industry.
"People want and need to travel," said Lewis. "Customers are not scared of the risks. The vast majority are no longer at high risk of this disease because we are jabbed or we are young. The most vulnerable are more protected from this risk than many others we don’t protect them from.
"Yes, we must monitor new variants but they are inevitable. The government has to give us our freedom back. The vaccines will stay ahead of variants as they do with flu but we have to live with some risk. Most importantly we have to live.
"Scrap this traffic light system, monitor variants and ensure everyone is double jabbed. Allow our travel industry to trade. If not, then the need for financial support for the overseas travel sector until we have had a period of unrestricted trading is beyond critical."
Danny Callaghan, chief executive of the Latin American Travel Association and chair of the Travel Industry Alliance, described the move as "the final nail in the coffin of travel for 2021".
"This reveals what we had started to suspect - that the whole Global Travel Taskforce consultation was a meaningless way to keep the industry at bay for a few extra months," added Callaghan.
"This begs two questions: what exactly is the risk to the UK posed by arrivals from France?; and if France does pose a significant risk, why is it not on the red list? It seems politics and vanity trump safety every time, as we saw with the thousands of people allowed to-and-fro for the Euro matches at Wembley."


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“Nevertheless, in the longer term, the sheer size of the country and its consumer base makes Russia a market with interesting development opportunities for branded goods companies,” she said.
On the West Coast, doing business with Russia is seen as too problematic due to a plethora of reasons ranging from strongmen to style.
“Well, it’s the [cold] weather there and the currency exchange for two things,” said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, who said California manufacturers tend to not do business with retailers in Russia. “And, it’s the size of the people. Our manufacturers are oriented to juniors’ and contemporary and if you just envision Russians, there aren’t too many manufacturers here that make things warm and large.”
West Coast contractors are not sourcing goods from Russia, either. “I can only surmise that labor costs there are not as cheap as China,” said Joe Rodriguez, executive director of the Garment Contractors Association, noting even Vietnam or Cambodia would be more logical alliances because of their geographic proximity to California. “Whenever an American or Californian sources elsewhere, they’re looking primarily for the lowest costs. I would think they have other options here.”
On two separate occasions since 2001, a Russian delegation of retailers, including GUM, came to Los Angeles to buy goods. They went home empty-handed.
“[The retailers] were commenting on the fact that California style and American style [are] so different from European style, and European fashion is what Russia is leaning toward,” said Olga Karasik, a corporate attorney who accompanied the Russians on their tour. “On the flip side, they were finding it’s very difficult to sell Russian [goods] here. There’s a clash on every style level.”


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The leading global trade fair for food and beverages taps into the extensive know-how of Europe’s leading initiative for food innovations
EIT Food, the world’s largest and most dynamic initiative for food innovations is the new partner of Anuga. In line with the key theme of Anuga, “Sustainable Growth”, the aim of the long-term, strategic partnership is to promote the dialogue and the interdisciplinary cooperation to achieve a sustainable food system. Together the leading global trade fair for food and beverages and EIT Food will create a platform for innovative ideas and new sustainable developments in the food industry. To this end, they are bringing the most important players from the industry and fields of politics and business together at Anuga in Cologne from 7 to 11 October 2023.
“We are delighted to have the experts of EIT Food and its network on board in the scope of this new, strategic partnership. New ways towards an improved, global food system will be highlighted in the course of different event formats and subsequently there will be an opportunity to engage in a direct exchange with an international trade audience and the trade media,” explained Bastian Mingers, Vice President Food.
Dr. Andy Zynga, CEO of EIT Food, adds: “EIT Food is very pleased to work more closely with Anuga, in addition to the partnership with Anuga HORIZON. The goal of the food community is clear: only together will we build an innovative and resilient food system, which is integral in driving greater food security and a healthier planet. This requires new ideas, solutions and collaboration within the industry, for which Anuga offers a fantastic opportunity.”
The key contents of the partnership are among others:
- a professional exchange and knowledge transfer
- the joint development of the conference and event programme of Anuga with panel discussions, workshops and speakers
- joint press events in the run-up to and during Anuga
Over 1,000 exhibitors and around 25,000 trade visitors at the Special Edition in Cologne
For four days, from April 26 to 29, 2022, the food and beverage industry met with its supplier sector at Anuga FoodTec – Special Edition – in Cologne, Germany. “Anuga FoodTec is and remains the central and international meeting place for the industry. And this leading position has been clearly underlined by the successful re-launch of the trade show here in Cologne. The right concept, at the right time,” said Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse GmbH. “The high-caliber trade audience that traveled from more than 120 countries met excellently positioned and committed exhibitors here in Cologne. Intensive effective discussions characterized the course of the trade fair. The exhibitors’ feedback confirmed to us once again how important personal encounters are for successful business,” added Oliver Frese, Chief Operating Officer of Koelnmesse GmbH.
Dr. Reinhard Grandke, Chief Executive Officer of DLG (German Agricultural Society) and Chairman of the Anuga FoodTec Advisory Board, clarifies: “The mix of physical and digital offerings underscored the high professional relevance of the international Anuga FoodTec platform and provided the right setting for successful business deals and investments. Compact, innovative formats offered numerous opportunities to take an in-depth look at the intelligent automation of production processes in the food and beverage industry. Along the entire value chain, new technologies and concepts were presented that push the sustainable use of natural resources. The important networking of science and business practice was again achieved in an exemplary manner in Cologne.”
The opening of Anuga FoodTec by Federal Minister Cem Özdemir also underscored the outstanding importance of the trade show for the industry. During his tour of the trade show, Minister Özdemir learned about a wide variety of new concepts and solutions for meeting the challenges facing food and beverage producers worldwide.
A total of around 25,000 trade visitors from over 120 countries were counted. The attendance from other European countries and from Germany was very strong. Visitor numbers from the Middle East and some African countries were also gratifyingly good. The proportion of visitors from abroad was around 57 percent.
As the most important platform of the year, Anuga FoodTec thus successfully launched the re-launch of the entire industry. The great need for investment and, at the same time, the high level of willingness to invest on the part of the inquiring industry was expressed, among other things, by the fact that many of the managing directors and plant managers who attended approached the exhibitors with concrete project ideas. In some cases, machines and equipment were even purchased on the spot. The current world situation has increased the need for answers to questions in areas such as energy efficiency, resource conservation and sustainability. In addition to key players, numerous medium-sized companies, smaller specialists and 28 start-ups also showed innovative concepts tailored precisely to the industry.
“Smart Solutions – Higher Flexibility” was the highly relevant guiding theme of the trade show and its extensive technical program, which was very well received by the international audience with over 200 specialist events. The DLG played a leading role, using its expertise to organize the numerous events in a variety of formats. For example, specialist forums highlighted a wide range of current topics in food technology and linked scientific findings with business practice. Visitors also received a compact overview and orientation with regard to pioneering innovations in the field of food technology during the Guided Tours on the exhibition grounds.
Until June 30, visitors will have the opportunity to network with exhibitors at the Anuga FoodTec @home digital extension, watch missed presentations from the congress program and pick up a wealth of other industry information. Visitors to Anuga FoodTec can use the platform, free of charge, while the rest can access the content after registering free of charge.
Current trends, the latest innovations and visionary concepts for the food of the future were under focus more than ever at Anuga from 5 to 9 October 2019. The world’s largest trade fair for food and beverages demonstrated once again that it is the industry’s no. 1 global event. With over 170,000 trade visitors (plus 3 percent compared to 2017) from 201 countries and around 7,500 exhibitors (7,405 in 2017) from 106 countries, the trade fair set new records. The share of foreign exhibitors was almost 90 percent and the share of foreign visitors was 75 percent. Exhibitors from all over the world presented the entire spectrum of global products in ten trade shows under one roof. “The continual growth in the number of trade visitors and exhibitors confirms the excellent international standing of Anuga as the industry’s most important business platform. This record result means we are continuing to write the success story of Anuga in its 100th anniversary year. No other event brings supply and demand together so effectively at such a high level of quality as here in Cologne. However, Anuga 2019 fulfilled the function as a window to the future more pronouncedly than ever as well. Strategic decisions for the entire food industry were discussed here, new solutions and concepts for the big challenges of the global food industry were presented too,” stated Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse GmbH.
Paraguay’s Minister for Trade and Industry, Liz Cramer, held the opening speech for the partner country. She was particularly delighted about the friendly reception at the trade fair and the keen interest of the trade visitors in her own country: “We are convinced in Paraguay that a free and fair world trade is a source of further development and that it can lead to a more efficient usage of the globally available resources. Our exhibitors from the food industry, who have taken part in Anuga, are reporting about a high number of meetings with potential partners and are thus expecting to experience a growing demand for food from Paraguay. Furthermore, we have learned a great deal about the expectations of today’s consumers at the trade fair. I am convinced that in the face of the excellent outcome of our participation this year, Anuga will remain to be an overriding event for the development of the Paraguayan food sector in the coming years, with a significant presence of companies and representatives from the public sector of our country.”
Friedhelm Dornseifer, President of the German Association of the Retail Grocery Trade (BVLH) was also very satisfied: “Anuga has once again succeeded in presenting the diversity of the food industry in an impressive way. Whereby the trade fair has also succeeded in linking up the future themes of the industry with the current political debate about which influence the production, processing and marketing of food has on the environment and climate change. In its 100th anniversary year, Anuga is thus presenting itself as extremely topical and well-equipped for future challenges. In spite of the high importance of social responsibility and sustainability that goes hand in hand with the manufacturing and sales of food, with its wide variety of new products Anuga 2019 demonstrated impressively that the appreciation of food is above all a matter of taste. Offering products that comply with the ethical needs of the consumers that also provide them with the highest possible degree of enjoyment is a big challenge for food manufacturers and distributors. There is tough competition in this sector. They bear the entrepreneurial risk and thus deserve more political support to reconcile sustainability, profitability and the customers’ requirements.”
Christoph Minhoff, Chief Executive Director of the Federation of German Food and Drinks Industries (BVE), also drew a positive balance. “As the world’s largest and most important trade fair for food and beverages, Anuga is not only a platform for the export business of the German food industry, but also the leading global trade fair for innovations and trends within the food market. We are more innovative than any other branch of industry: Every year over 40,000 new products are introduced onto the market in Germany alone. The German food manufacturers were once again this year able to impressively demonstrate that they can already provide answers today as to how the future is going to taste. Here trends like “healthy and sustainable food” are not only further establishing themselves, sustainability is actually taking on a new dimension among foodstuffs. If the politicians want to support the industry with this development, they have to solve the existing, conflicting goals between the reduction of packing, fighting food waste and food safety instead of dictating agreements.”
Guido Zöllick, President of the DEHOGA German Association, continued: “In times that are exciting and challenging for the food service business, Anuga 2019 convinced with a unique mixture of exhibitors, valuable first-hand information, exciting trend analyses from all over the globe and an extensive, industry-relevant event programme on topical themes. True added value for the entrepreneurial success of today and tomorrow for a strong industry with an annual net turnover of almost Euro 90 billion. The DEHOGA Food Service Marketplace was once again the central meeting point for brand-name restaurant owners and medium-sized hospitality companies from Germany and Europe. Industry highlights additionally included the premiere of the dehogadigitalday, the 29th Professional Food Service Forum as well as the starting signal for the competition “Distinguished! The best German children’s menus” together with the Federal Minister of Food, Julia Klöckner. The successful outcome of the trade fair is further evidence of the high significance and great appeal of Anuga for the hospitality industry.”
Top buyers on board
The exhibitors were particularly impressed by the quality of the visitors. Countless buyers with high decision-making competence from the trade and food service attend the trade fair in Cologne. All of the important players of the TOP 10 food dealers in the world and the TOP 12 from Germany were represented. These included among others Walmart, Costco Wholesale, The Kroger Co., Metro AG, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., Edeka, Rewe Group, Penny, Lidl and Kaufland (Schwarz Group). Important online dealers like Amazon, LSG Group, E.Leclerc, Mercadona, Migros and SPC Groups were also present. In terms of the number of trade visitors, increases for Europe were particularly recorded from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and the Ukraine. Significant increases from non-European countries were predominantly registered from Brazil, Japan, the USA and Russia.
More than just business
Anuga is not only the gate to the worldwide food and beverage world. With a diversified event and congress programme or special events like the Anuga Horizon 2050, this year the trade fair additionally set new impulses for the food industry of tomorrow more than ever before. The congress trio NEWTRITION X, E-Grocery Congress @Anuga and the Innovation Food Conference (iFood) featuring top international speakers offered an extensive pool of new information on trends, market opportunities, new technologies and the digitalisation of the industry. Furthermore, as a provider of knowledge and know-how, Anuga presented new and ongoing trends. These included for instance plant-based meat substitute products, alternative protein products based on peas, fava beans or insects and newly-interpreted product variants made of hemp. Beyond this, themes such as free-from, convenience, vegan, bio, halal and kosher also played an important role.
The next Anuga will take place from October 9 to 13, 2021.


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Philippine Airlines is Certified as a 4-Star Airline for the quality of its airport and onboard product and staff service. Product rating includes seats, amenities, food & beverages, IFE, cleanliness etc, and service rating is for both cabin staff and ground staff.
Is Philippine airline safe?
PAL was one of more than 150 airlines audited on its Covid-19 safety credentials by Safe Travel Barometer, an independent subsidiary of travel industry advisory and consulting firm VIDEC. PAL secured a 4.2 rating out of 5.0, the highest score.
What is the best airline in the Philippines?
Top Airlines Companies in Philippines
- Cebu Pacific. 4.1. LocationPhilippines. …
- Philippine Air. 4.0. LocationPhilippines. …
- Qatar Airways. 3.9. LocationPhilippines. …
- Lufthansa Group. 3.9. LocationPhilippines. …
- Delta Air Lines. 4.4. LocationPhilippines. …
- flydubai. 4.3. LocationPhilippines. …
- Singapore Airlines. 4.0. …
- United Airlines. 4.1.
Is Philippine Airlines a 5 star airline?
“This marks the first ever 5-star rating for Philippine Airlines,” announced APEX’s chief executive officer Dr. Joe Leader. PAL’s new cabin products and aircraft, such as the Airbus A350-900 and A321neo, helped the airline elevate the overall passenger’s experience, resulting in a 5-star airline rating.
Is Philippine Airlines a budget airline?
As a codeshare partner of Philippine Airlines, PAL Express operates as a full service carrier within a low-cost model. PAL Express is Philippine Airlines’ answer to Cebu Pacific’s dominance in the low-cost travel market in the Philippines.
Which is better Cebu Pacific or Philippine Airlines?
If you are looking to flying outside the country, then PAL is a better choice than Cebu Pacific. If you are planning to go around the Philippines, Cebu Pacific is more budget-friendly when it comes to domestic traveling. Cebu Pacific offers more affordable prices, however, you need to pay extra for your luggage.
What is the richest airline?
By company revenue
|1||Delta Air Lines||61.8|
|2||American Airlines Group||60.6|
Which is better Cebu Pacific or Air Asia?
On-Time Performance: Cebu Pacific vs AirAsia
Data from the Official Aviation Guide (OAG), the biggest network of air travel data in the world, shows Philippines AirAsia having a slim lead over Cebu Pacific in terms of annual OTP. From June 2018 to May 2019, AirAsia had an OTP of 63.1%, while Cebu Pac had 56%.
Which airline is the best airline?
Delta Air Lines won the title of best North American airline, while Japan Airlines ranked as the world’s best economy class.
Here are Skytrax’s top 10 airlines of 2021, by overall rating:
- Qatar Airways.
- Singapore Airlines.
- ANA All Nippon Airways.
- Japan Airlines.
- Cathay Pacific Airways.
- EVA Air.
- Qantas Airways.
What is Philippine Airlines known for?
Philippine Airlines, also known as PAL, is the Filipino flag carrier. The company started their operations in February 1941, which makes PAL the oldest and longest-serving airline in south-east Asia. Philippine Airlines is today a private company owned by PAL Holdings, one of the larget Filipino conglomerates.
What are the advantages of Philippine Airlines?
PAL system upgrade to benefit passengers
- Easier booking and automated recognition of customer preferences.
- Faster check-in process.
- Improved online check-in experience.
- Smoother transfers to connecting flights on partner airlines.
- Real-time, personalized alerts for flight changes.
Why is Philippine Airlines successful?
As of Nov 2017, PAL has driven 36X higher average return on investment (ROI) from all booked online ticket sales. PAL’s success with search inspired confidence in deploying digital-only campaigns on a global scale. It has boosted executive team’s belief in digital marketing and ongoing training.
Who own Philippine Airlines?
Accessibility. Philippine Airlines (PAL), the national flag carrier and considered “Asia’s First Airline,” remains the country’s biggest airline company. It has the largest number of international flights to the Philippines as well as domestic flights.
Who owns Philippine Airlines before?
After 14 years of ownership by the government of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, PAL was sold at the order of President Corazon Aquino in 1992 to a consortium of companies under the leadership of the Soriano and Cojuangco (pronounced “koe-HWAHNG-koe”) families.


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Finvarb and Simkins submit plans for Miami Beach hotel
UPDATED July 13 11:12 a.m.: Robert Finvarb and Michael Simkins have teamed up to propose a new mixed-use project on city-owned lots in Miami Beach.
The parcels in question are at 900 Washington Avenue on the same block as the historic Hotel Astor. Together they measure 14,484 square feet and are currently used as surface parking.
The joint-venture responded this week to a request for proposal from the city, which opened the property to development as part of its effort to revitalize Washington Avenue.
Simkins and Finvarb’s plan is to redevelop the lots into a mixed-use parking garage with hotel and retail components, according to proposal documents first reported by the Next Miami.
As part of the proposal, Simkins would combine the city-owned parcels with his 30,050-square-foot property at 930 Washington Avenue, which is mostly occupied by a five-story office building. Perkins+Will Miami is the architect on the project.
The proposed development would include 247 spots in a self-park garage, 145 of which would be owned and operated by the city for public parking. The remaining 102 spaces would service the project’s 17,354-square-feet of retail space and 145-room hotel. The hotel portion would have access to a rooftop terrace with a pool.
On Washington Avenue, a new zoning ordinance approved in October allows for a building height of up to seven stories.
Washington Avenue is experiencing a new wave of redevelopment, amid the city’s approval of new measures that are designed to increase hotel space and retail and dining opportunities on the street, which lags far behind Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive in attracting first tier retail, dining and hotel venues. [The Next Miami] — Sean Stewart-Muniz


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QSC has named Abdul Chaudhri director, systems solutions. In his role, Chaudhri will work to grow QSC’s enterprise solutions, strategies, and cultivate end-user relationships.
Abdul Chaudhri joins QSC from AMX by Harman, where he was vice president of sales, Eastern region. In that position, he led the channel sales team and multiple sales representative companies for Harman Pro. Prior to that, he spent eight years as the company’s director of sales, global accounts, where he created, developed, and deployed the enterprise business and audio, video, and control standardization strategy.
“We are thrilled to have Abdul as part of our team,” said Joe Pham, president and CEO, QSC. “QSC sees a significant opportunity to take advantage of the new era of AV&C and we believe that includes focusing on the enterprise customer. With Abdul’s experience and passion for developing relationships and establishing brand recognition with key customers, he is an ideal fit to our growing systems business.”
“I am joining an organization that has the technology, team spirit, solid reputation, and most importantly, the future vision of audio, video, and control,” Chaudhri said. “QSC will be a leader in shaping the future of AV, and I look forward to being a part of this evolution.”
Chaudhri joins QSC’s business development team of Cory Schaeffer, director, systems solutions and Rich Zwiebel, VP of systems strategy.


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Bengaluru goes from technology capital to talent hub as e-tailers hunt for IT skills
Amazon has had executives working on global product development for more than 12 years in India, long before the 2013 launch of its marketplace in the country.
Apax pumps in $200 mn in AI company Fractal Analytics
The company will use the investment by the Apax Funds to accelerate growth, both organi...
Sequoia, Nexus Venture, Blume Ventures invest $ 25% in Turtlemint
While Sequoia is the new investor in the company the other are existing inv...
Private life insurers better claim payout ratio to 95% in FY18
Better fraud management techniques, technology and regulation have helped insurers in fastening the claim settlement process and cutting rejections.
US producer prices support tame inflation picture
The US central bank has forecast two rate increases for 2019.
Housing sales up 7% in 2018 in 9 major cities; new supply falls 22%: Report
Higher sales and fall in new supply led to 10 per cent decline in unsold stock at around 6 lakh units as on December 31, 2018.
Yes Bank to use data analytics to offer right mix of products
The bank has already diversified into retail segment and now harnessing data analytics to come up with models that help understand customer behaviour.
Market Movers: More GST relief on cards, all eyes on inflation
Here’s a lowdown on top macro triggers that may move market on January 14, 2019.
Will be too late if work doesn't begin on incorporating AI into armed forces' system: General Rawat
Addressing the Army Technology Seminar at Manekshaw Centre here, he said, it will be "too late" if we don't start work on AI and big data.
SRiX inks pact with UK’s Cranfield varsity to help startups access new markets
In a joint statement, the partners said a 10-week immersion program was being developed with Indian startup companies mentored in the UK by leading Cranfield academics under the collaborative deal.
Customers spending more in data analytics to mitigate risks, improve engagement: Infosys
In a study released today, the company found out that nearly one-third of them ready to invest in customer experience improvement using various data analytics solutions.
NPA-hit banks find new love in middle class and it may revive Indian economy
While slowing investments are worrying some, there is enough hope that retail could surprise in aiding both the economy as well as lenders.
Apax places $200m bet on big data with Fractal stake buy
PE firm to buy out TA Associates and Khazanah in India’s 2nd-largest analytics co, infuse fresh funds
Schindler wants to make India its manufacturing and R&D hub
Schindler, which is present in the country since the past 20 years, also plans to invest significantly in digitisation and data analytics.
OYO to add up to 500 Townhouse hotels across India in 2019
In all, the company has 68 Townhouse hotels in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Ghaziabad, Jaipur and Pune.


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Neptune was also named Outstanding In-House Professional last Thursday at the PRWeek Awards U.S.
Through tech revolutions to ethical dilemmas, automotive marketers are having to stay ahead of consumer demands, expectations and fears to stay relevant. Audi, Nissan and WE Communications explain how...
Squeo has held communications roles at IBM and Netflix and won a Pulitzer Prize.
Avenatti charged with trying to extort Nike; Why Jimmy Fallon's show looked different Monday night; Trump feels bad for dragging Hicks into Mueller investigation; and other news to know.
The tourism organization had worked with Zeno since late 2015.
Donovan was remembered for his professionalism and personal touch.
Beer brand blocks entrance to beach to raise awareness of issue.
Among many stakeholders, concern about artificial intelligence outpaces excitement. A new study by Omnicom Public Relations Group's AI Impact Group, as well as a recent roundtable it hosted, analyzes and counsels on the corporate-reputation ramifications.
How media reacting to Mueller report; What's up with Apple's live stream of Steve Jobs Theater?; How Parkland is communicating to parents following suicides; and other news to know.
Russo joins from Discovery, where she worked for 14 years.
PRWeek's editorial team recaps the 2019 PRWeek U.S. Awards.
You have an influencer marketing program ready to go, and a social site goes down. Experts discuss what's next.


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1st May 2018 – Steyning, England – SME, the British engineering and specialist Hi-Fi company, has acquired the rights to the Garrard audio brand from IGB Gradiente S.A. of Brazil. A British brand synonymous with the design and manufacture of class-leading Hi-Fi products throughout the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s, including the iconic 301 and 401 transcription turntables, Garrard is a much-admired audio brand whose products are eagerly sought out and traded worldwide.
Commenting on the acquisition, Stuart McNeilis, CEO of SME, said, “It is with great pleasure that we can announce the acquisition of the Garrard audio brand. Responsible for true icons of vinyl reproduction with the 301 and 401 turntables, in many ways, Garrard’s legacy mirrors SME’s, with precision engineering, design and manufacturing, based in the UK. Many of these great turntables were paired with SME tonearms and there has always been a natural synergy between the two company’s products. As an iconic British brand, Garrard deserves to be enjoyed by a new generation of audiophiles.”
To support owners of existing Garrard idler drive turntables, SME has also acquired Loricraft Audio, the only authorised Garrard service agent. Responsible in many ways for keeping the Garrard legacy alive, Terry O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Loricraft, and his team has serviced and re-built Garrard products since 1997, along with manufacturing support products, including its renowned range of vinyl record cleaning machines. “With years of experience and expert knowledge that will be crucial as SME develops the Garrard audio brand, the acquisition of Loricraft Audio was essential, as it enables the continued ability to service and maintain existing products.” added McNeilis. “We are delighted that Terry and his team will join the SME family and bring their vast experience with them.”
There will be further announcements regarding the development of the Garrard audio brand in the near future. Loricraft Audio, now supported by SME, will continue with the supply of its accessories and record cleaning machines from its facility in West Berkshire, England.


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By Grace Austin THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF CROWDFUNDING HAS FINALLY MOVED INTO THE CHARITABLE SECTOR. Fundly, the crowdfunding platform for “social good,” has enabled users to raise more than $305 million to-date for nonprofit, volunteer, political, and personal charitable causes. Founded by Dave Boyce in 2009, Fundly began as a way to make fundraising more… Read the full article
By Julie Hayes WHEN SAYAKA ETO, Ashok Kamal, and Kevin Eng met in 2010 while pursuing their MBAs in New York City, they discovered a mutual love of engaging the corporate world in social and environmental issues. Though each came from different backgrounds, both culturally and educationally, they shared a common interest in the amount… Read the full article
LANGUAGESPEAK, A PROFESSIONAL translation services company, was founded by entrepreneur Annette Taddeo-Goldstein. The company offers language-related services in over 240 languages, employing translators, interpreters, and instructors. A nationally recognized minority supplier, LanguageSpeak has received many awards, including recognition as one of the Top 500 Hispanic American owned businesses in 2010 by the Golden 100 Top… Read the full article
Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin is president and CEO of Tribe, Inc., an internal communications firm that works with national and global brands like UPS, Coca-Cola, Target, Embassy Suites, Chick-Fil-A, Porsche, Invesco, and Elavon. She is also the author of several books, including Run Your Business Like a Girl, a study of female entrepreneurs. She has created… Read the full article
Equis Staffing was established in 2006 to provide accounting, finance, and IT professionals to all industries in Southern California. Carrie Nebens has served as the president since the company’s start. Why was Equis Staffing founded? After working for large organizations that tend to be very cookie cutter, I felt it was time to create a… Read the full article
By Christopher Bennett, Instructor, Computer Systems Institute, Elgin, Illinois According to an October 2012 article in Money Magazine, the average class of 2011 college graduate owes $26,600 in student loan debt. This fact could lead some young, entrepreneurial-minded individuals to question whether or not they could do better by investing $27,000 into a small business… Read the full article
It is stated in the Small Business Act that prime contractors are required to provide subcontracting opportunities to small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB), and service-disabled VOSB. Subcontracting helps build credibility for businesses, which the government likes when considering contract bids.
A former finance executive’s misgivings with patients’ food helped create a new venture designed to increase nutrition.
Zolio, a new online trading program which offers tools to educate young investors on the opportunity to become investment managers, believes that investing is a skill that can aid everyone, and even be a relevant career path for others.
We spoke to Steve Mills, CEO and president of AQIWO, a distinguished Native American small business owner in honor of Native American Heritage Month, this November. In addition to his business acumen, Mills is also a noted philanthropist.


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Latest food industry comment
The best views and opinions in food industry publishing, all in one place, from food's monthly columnists and in-house experts.
It is hard to predict just what Brexit will mean for food and drink regulations in the UK and for the country's trade arrangements with the...
Kellogg has this week made its first acquisition in the US for over four years, snapping up fledgling snack bar maker Pure Organic. The deal...
Ramadan begins next week, a month when Muslims fast from dawn until sunset but outside those hours prepare meals with plenty of food. Howeve...
The rise of Aldi and Costco in Australia in recent years has shaken up the country's grocery retail sector. Brian Cook, group director for s...
Ben Cooper examines consumption itself and asks whether government statistics in the UK published earlier this year, coupled with observations by the head of sustainability at Ikea, signify slowing demand for consumer goods.
Just a week after dropping its interest in Premier Foods, McCormick & Co. announced the acquisition of Australian chilled herbs firm Botanical Food Co. When the US herbs and spices giant's interest in Premier emerged, McCormick said it had a "pipeline" of targets and industry watchers expect the company to continue to look to M&A for growth.
United Biscuits, the UK's largest biscuit maker, has set out how it believes the sector in the country can grow sales by GBP500m by 2020. After hearing how the Yildiz Holding-owned business plans to increase the size of the category, Ben Cooper wonders whether the issue of rising obesity should inform how food manufacturers shape their drive for growth.
News PepsiCo has reorganised its senior management team following the departure of Frito-Lay North America CEO Tom Greco prompted a flurry of speculation from as to whether the company is lining up a successor to chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. However, Katy Askew suggests bringing the company's North American businesses under a single leader can also be viewed as a natural extension of PepsiCo's "power of one" strategy.
To win online, packaged food manufacturers must put in place specific strategies to suit the channel. Keith Anderson, vice president of strategy and insights at e-commerce consultants Profitero, sets out what companies should do to build a thriving business in the growing digital sphere.
The UK government yesterday announced a surprise move to tax sweetened soft drinks. Ben Cooper examines the implications this latest move may have for the government’s child obesity strategy, expected later in the year, and for future food and health policy in the UK.
A number of fresh foods are feeling the benefit of rising consumer interest in the UK in home blending but there appears to be some pressure on beverage sales. Martin Wood, head of strategic insight for retail solutions and innovation at IRI, digs into the numbers.
E-commerce is becoming a channel upon which food manufacturers are placing increasing amounts of attention - and resources. In the first of a regular column on just-food, Keith Anderson, vice president of strategy and insights at e-commerce consultants Profitero, analyses the online opportunity for businesses, sets out how they can harness the growth in the channel and illustrates how some smaller brands are gaining an edge.
Irwin Simon, the founder, president and CEO of Hain Celestial, often comes across as one of the more forthright chief executives in the US food industry, with a firm belief in his company and its prospects. With Hain Celestial's domestic business facing challenges and investor scrutiny intensifying, Simon this week set out how the company will improve its performance in the US and why he believes the group can thrive amid increasing competition - but there were signs he acknowledges the need to adapt to meet the challenge.
The decision by Campbell Soup Co. to back nationwide mandatory labelling of the genetically modified ingredients in food on sale in the US, Ben Cooper writes, is more about the merits and importance of greater transparency than it is about the pros and cons of GM itself.
A striking transaction has been announced in the private-equity world, with US buy-out house Catterton to join forces with the investment arm of luxury goods group LVMH - and right along the consumer-facing parts of the food sector companies will be watching closely.
Europe's recent economic woes may have dampened enthusiasm for the region but IRI believes there are numerous ways to grow for food manufacturers.
General Mills' latest numbers have put the US food giant under scrutiny once more. Last week, the company reported lacklustre second-quarter sales and cut its forecasts for annual sales and earnings. The group's domestic business, which has been under pressure for a number of years now, saw sales fall, leading industry watchers to ponder what lies ahead in 2016 and beyond for the company. Dean Best reports.
The COP21 agreement marks the start of a huge concerted effort in which the food industry will have a leading role to play, Ben Cooper writes.
Just three years after PepsiCo and Muller launched their bid to capture part of the US yoghurt market, the companies have thrown in the towel. Dean Best believes the companies did not create distinct enough products to succeed in a competitive category.
The broader tastes of younger consumers is fuelling the expansion of chains focused on ethnic food in the US. David Henkes, vice president at foodservice analysts Technomic, looks at which types of outlet are on the rise and hints at the trends to watch.
Discount retailers are a major force in grocery retailing in a number of European markets, forcing supermarkets to adapt and prompting suppliers to revise their strategies in a number of areas. However, in a guest column for just-food, José Carlos González-Hurtado, the former Carrefour chief commercial officer who is now president of international at IRI, outlines why there could be limits to the growth of the discounters.
There has been more consolidation in the US food industry, with another big player largely focused on stagnant categories moving for a business in a growing area of the sector. Pinnacle Foods, the business behind the Birds Eye brand in the US, as well as products like Duncan Hines baking mixes and Wish-Bone salad dressings, has struck a deal to buy Boulder Brands - a business in gluten-free but one that has struggled in recent quarters. Dean Best reports.
The US Food and Drug Administration's decision to approve AquaBounty Technologies' AquAdvantage salmon for consumption in the country sees the collision of two highly controversial subjects, namely aquaculture and genetic modification.
Kellogg has this week insisted its struggling US cereal division is showing signs of improvement. However, despite recent innovation and an attempt to reposition Special K, Kellogg posted yet another period of declining domestic cereal sales in the third quarter. And Hannah Abdulla suggests there are signs Kellogg's expectations for its US cereal business are becoming more subdued.
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Smile and Barclays have been blasted for failing to educate their customers about the danger of online attacks.
Customers of the two banks were hit by email scams that attempted to capture their bank details. Fraudulent emails were sent to users requesting them to click a link and enter their credit card and password information into replicated sites.
According to internet security testing firm NTA Monitor, victims of fraud are usually embarrassed about being duped and keep quiet about it, so the true extent of these recent attacks is unlikely to become known.
The company added that although a scam email would appear suspicious to the security-conscious user, a vast number of people would consider it genuine.
Kevin Foster, strategy manager at NTA Monitor, said: "We're surprised that, despite these attacks, a number of UK banks are still not taking direct preventative action to advise customers of the risks these scams pose.
"The question is: will other e-commerce sites take the opportunity to give good advice to their customers before it's too late?
"Especially given that security concerns are a huge barrier to user uptake, responsible e-commerce sites should be taking more care to protect internet users - both to protect their customers' sensitive records, and reduce the numbers duped by these kinds of scams."
Advice to users is available here.
Cotton seedling freezes to death as Chang'e-4 shuts down for the Moon's 14-day lunar night
Fortnite easily out-earns PUBG, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018
Meteor showers as a service will be visible for about 100 kilometres in all directions
Saturn's rings only formed in the past 100 million years, suggests analysis of Cassini space probe data
New findings contradict conventional belief that Saturn's rings were formed along with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago