US candle market retail salesU.S. plant-based meat retail sales
US candle market retail sales and US plant-based meat retail sales have, between 2017 and 2022, risen together at a correlation of 0.991. The soy candle and the pea protein burger are evidently moving together, which in a deeply millennial sense is almost too emotionally coherent. One scents the apartment. The other fills the plate. Both are marketed as better.
US candle market retail sales grew from around $2.4 billion in 2017 to over $3.5 billion by 2022, driven by pandemic-era home comfort purchasing and the premiumization of scented wellness goods. US plant-based meat sales climbed from $680 million to over $1.2 billion in the same window. Both trends reflect the same millennial and younger consumer cohort's preference for brand-forward, wellness-adjacent products sold at premium prices through modern retail channels. The candle and the burger are in the same Bath & Body Works adjacency.
Six years of two lines rising together can describe one cohort's preferences expressed across categories. The candle and the imitation beef share an aesthetic. Both are, fundamentally, mood products.
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