Consumer behavior is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. The shift away from brand loyalty toward habit-driven consumption is often attributed to generational preferences or digital disruption, but the reality is more structural.
Three converging forces — time scarcity among dual-income households, a K-shaped economy that rewards convenience and the geographic reorientation of daily life toward suburban and exurban communities — are fundamentally reshaping how consumers spend, where they shop and what kinds of retail real estate outperform.
Time is the binding constraint
The modern consumer is not disengaged; they are overallocated. Dual-income households are now the norm, and the largest cohort of consumers — millennials in their 30
