Streaming service subscriptions

Streaming subscriptions and thrift-store revenue, climbing in tandem. The TV and the t-shirt, both pre-loved by somebody, both finding new homes. The 2010s liked an inexpensive option.

Streaming service subscriptions ballooned from a few million Netflix households in 2012 to over a billion subscriptions worldwide by 2022 as the streaming wars stacked services on the same household. US thrift and secondhand revenue roughly doubled in the same window, lifted by Gen Z secondhand culture, Depop, Poshmark, and the eco-label tailwind. Both are cheaper-alternatives stories thriving in a decade of stagnant real wages: the consumer found ways to entertain and dress without buying new at full retail. Subscription and secondhand, the same wallet decision in different aisles.

When real wages flatline, cheaper options grow. Different categories, identical reasoning.