Child-free 'Disney adults' are transforming the company's theme parks (2023)(businessinsider.com) |
Child-free 'Disney adults' are transforming the company's theme parks (2023)(businessinsider.com) |
I sleep in a cabin next to a lake, or on a hammock in the woods. I drink beer, fish, and go to sauna every day.
There's no "consumption" above and beyond the food/drinks.
Oof.
The reality in which many in the US and maybe the West generally (perhaps elsewhere too) is one in which one's life as an agent is constrained within the bounds of being a consumer. What I mean is people are habituated into expressing their agency as a consumer: Someone or thing offers you something, you "decide" to accept it or reject it. If you don't like what's being offered, you leverage your ability to consume as the means by which you exert power over the producer, i.e., "Make me an offer I like or I'll consumer elsewhere (if I can)".
So, of course people's identities are consumption centered. This is because is what reality is for peoples' everyday life, consumption choices. So people express who they are through the available consumption choices. Think about how people are marketed to, at least in the US. People are slammed with "Your choice" and "have it your way" and "be you" in advertising as if consuming a product is an expression of their respective identities.
Anyway, this is all just to say: The structure of society and the discourse that supports it plays a big role in constraining and guiding how people think and what choices people can even imagine are open to them when making decisions. So not all the responsibility or blame should be focused on individuals, but on large social structures, practices, and discourses.
> The structure of society and the discourse that supports it plays a big role in constraining and guiding how people think and what choices people can even imagine are open to them when making decisions. So not all the responsibility or blame should be focused on individuals, but on large social structures, practices, and discourses.
Skill issue.
As a business you in fact have an incentive to target these kinds of identity-driven consumers as they are much more likely to spend more on average than others.
And Disney is shifting their entire GTM as a result, but frankly there is nothing wrong with that - consumer tastes change.
That said, it sounds like you are dismissive of Disney-fanatics when in reality everyone is hypertargeted by their specific subculture. Doesn't matter if your a Tater, a ranked MMO gamer, Boardgame addicts, fantasy football aficionado, CrossFit enthusiast, mechanical keyboard collector, etc.
> That said, it sounds like you are dismissive of Disney-fanatics when in reality everyone is hypertargeted by their specific subculture. Doesn't matter if your a Tater, a ranked MMO gamer, Boardgame addict, fantasy football aficionado, CrossFit enthusiast, etc.
does everyone has to have a "specific subculture" that they consume? i feel like that way of looking at things is bleak. im a heavy fitness enthusiast and i hardly spend any money besides a basic gym membership and the cost of trail/camp permits
You also have to figure that most parents can't afford to take their kids to Disney as easily as they could just year or two ago, and may never be able to do so again.
42 Percent of People Who Waited in Line To Meet Characters at Disney Parks Last Year Were Childless Adults
https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3550984/never-grow-up-42...
2026:
Disney names parks boss Josh D'Amaro as its next CEO to succeed Bob Iger
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/disney-ceo-josh-damaro-succe...
These social classes will collapse quicker than you think, you're seeing the final death throes with age-verification laws
It's not like you can just scale up the magic kingdom.
Disney theme parks are a scarce resource.
I loathe Disney but there's no such thing as the Disney park of 2000, today.
This is happening to a lot of tourism because there's just way more tourism today than 50 years ago. There are way more wealthy people who can just throw money at the problem of "I want to do <thing>". They will always be able to outcompete the normal family of yesteryear who got to experience magic on a budget.
Of course Disney doesn't want you to think about how they really wanted this to happen and worked towards this goal as they have sought more international revenue so it's partially their fault.
(Now Anaheim, there they're kind of hosed. No space to expand.)
Versus multiple yearly curated luxury theme park vacations where you eat prepared fried food and go on prepared boat rides and take photos with people in mascot outfits and you're paying everyone to be nice and predictable to you.
Lifestyle tat for the outdoorsy set is an absolutely massive market that dwarfs the entire Disney empire.
You state that there's a truck. Those are expensive. Is that a requirement? Can I just use my car or take the train?
You imply the beer is overpriced. Is expensive beer a requirement? Is a box of the cheapest beer they sell at the market not acceptable?
You imply that I have to buy the gear to go. Is buying new gear a requirement? Yes, I have bought gear at one time, but I have had it for a long time.
You imply that the sauna requires a "fitness club membership". Is a fitness club membership a requirement? Can I not use the one in the cabin? Or what about the one I built in my home?
Trucks, expensive beer, buying new gear, even paying a subscription for a "fitness club" are all YOUR consumer mindset, probably American. Yes, consumption is happening, but your own projection of what is wanted vs what is required says a lot about your wants more than what you're trying to say about the person you're replying to.
> Lifestyle tat for the outdoorsy set is an absolutely massive market that dwarfs the entire Disney empire.
I'm sure it is.
Just because other people wish to consume the luxury gorp core outdoorsy market doesn't mean that I am obligated to. I just want to be outside, exploring the terrain and feeling the air and relaxing.
Yes, you can be reductionist about the word "consume", but what I am describing is a far cry from a highly curated, disneyland experience, where you buy fried food and take a picture with a man in a mascot costume.
Yes, consuming is an experience, and experience is one of the ideal things to do on vacation in particular.
Surely it's still legal to have just as many new and rewarding experiences, in a new or familiar environment for the same duration of time, and none of them are actual consumer activities.
It can be as fantastic as possible without doing any more significant or out-of-the ordinary consumption than otherwise.
If you can't get the most out of both plain experiences and dedicated consumption, any travel might not be as worthwhile as it could be.
It's a far cry from taking a vacation where, for the entire time, you are The Customer. Where you are paying for predictable catered experiences and food, where everyone is trying to serve you in some way.
Even the act of not consuming can become consumption. Minimalism, the almost anithesis of consumption, itself became a new avenue of consumption.
You can, of course, genuinely live modestly with minimal consumption. Keyword minimal. You just always consume to an extent.
This is ideal for some people, and/or at certain times, I've done it.
But it's still only half the equation.
I prefer to produce much much rather than consume.
I want to produce so much real tangible value added, that the amount I consume is negligible by comparison.
A Disney holiday as a pre-teen or early childhood milestone was only true amongst a subset of middle class Americans during the 1960s-2000s.
Heck, the first time I visited Disney was during my high school graduation with the subsidized HS Disneyland grad trip which Disney created in order to create a monetizable nostalgic customer base that became 'Disney Adults'.
Most people globally never experienced that, and only really care about Disney from a teen or adult oriented lens.
A high earning single person household flying in from Beijing or a DINK household in NYC spending $1-2K at a Disney resort is more valuable and provides better margins than a household of 4 spending $600 on Disney (and most likely won't stay at the resort).
It's the same strategy the foreign Disney Experience properties (Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai) and the Walt Disney cruises use as well.
You aren't a bad parent if you didn't take your family to Disneyworld - in fact they don't really want your money anymore.
Me too, but back when I started high school Disneyworld didn't yet exist, and by the time I got there the first phase was only about halfway built.
It was already too expensive for Florida natives though, but almost every Orlando resident could get special passbooks from places like their employer or church. My sweetheart's older brother had moved up there and set us up with a few days worth.
It was just plain designed to not only be expensive, but overpriced to boot :\
I'll still remember the second time we went to it a few years later after it was "complete." Still surrounded by swamp, there were no competitive attractions yet and to celebrate the completion they were going to shoot off fireworks for the first time, like the original in Anaheim was famous for every day.
It was a massive show, way over the top, after all it was Fourth of July, 1976, the Bicentennial of the founding of the USA :)
Everyone already does. It's called hobbies. Some people make their hobbies their entire identity, others less so.
hobbies don't have to be about consumption. In your post, it seemed like they did.
And businesses are businesses - be their your local small business bicycle shop or a mega-conglomerate like Disney - and as such will always optimize for those people who are open to spending a larger proportion on said hobby than the median consumer.
I'm sure if we all took a look at everyone else's hobbies and spending, we would find stuff which we would view as ridiculous consumption but the other person would view as valuable.
For example, I've been pretty competitive in powerlifting for several years (especially as I used to crosstrain in HS for wrestling and track&field) and unsurprisingly spending significantly more than other people getting personal training from coaches, buying IWF-certified barbells, Nike Romaleos, Titan bumper plates, etc. Someone who isn't into powerlifting would look at me as being weird (why not just go to a gym 2 times a week and call it a day?!?) but I derive utility from it.
As long as someone is able to afford their hobby without impacting their professional and personal lives, there is nothing wrong with it.
No shortage of very cheap or free hobbies. Walking is free. Cooking is what you'd spend anyway for food (or cheaper if it helps you skip delivery), watching movies cheap (not to mention piratable), coding is cheap, playing 8-bit games is cheap, a book club is cheap, sewing is cheap, drawing is cheap, writing is cheap...
Literally every hobby has an incentive to target those practitioners who heavily spend and spend time with other similar minded practitioners.
> Cooking
And you see the rise of influencer and performance driven marketing by firms like Henckels and Le Crueset (nothing wrong with that) along with those who truly love cooking specific types of cuisine overindexing on unique or subsets of ingredients (Geographic Indicator or bust)
> watching movies cheap (not to mention piratable)
And you see plenty of movie enthusiasts optimizing for 4K displays, high fidelity sound, or falling deep into IP-driven subcultures like Disney-fanatics
> coding is cheap
And you see whales who spend inordinate amounts on money on mechanical keyboards, 4K monitors, personal rigs, etc
> playing 8-bit games is cheap
Retro gamers.
> book club is cheap
Book subscriptions and local bookstore-led book clubs
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Show me the hobby, and I will show you the whales that all businesses in that specific hobby will target.
"In some shape of form" is a quite moved goalpost from "to participate in any hobby you will have to expend significant amounts of dough".
>Show me the hobby, and I will show you the whales that all businesses in that specific hobby will target.
You can spend a fortune even on socks, if you're so inclined. Or pay $1000 for a Juicero. Doesn't mean you have to, which was the claim.
Sure, they can exist. Does that mean you are obligated to purchase?
> And you see plenty of movie enthusiasts optimizing for 4K displays, high fidelity sound, or falling deep into IP-driven subcultures like Disney-fanatics
It almost sounds like the most exciting part of a hobby for you is buying things.
No, you don't. Maybe you think you do, because of consumer mindset. But you don't.
If you want you can show all of us on HN your bills and we will all probably find stuff which you spend on which we may think is unreasonable to us but is reasonable to you.
So long as you are making sure to save around 60% of your monthly income post-401k/IRA and rent/mortgage what you do with the other 40% is literally discretionary, and isn't hurting you.
Everybody thinks they are not a sucker, but everyone is.
> The reality is, to participate in any hobby you will have to expend significant amounts of dough
All I said is that you don't need to spend tons of money on a hobby. Maybe you think you do, because of consumer mindset, but you don't.
Is that wrong? Do you still think that hobbies require spending lots of money and consuming? Or do you acknowledge that a hobby can be fulfilling and enjoyable without much money and consumption?
Also without sounding like an elitist: not all hobbies are equal. I have so much more respect for someone who sits in their room and studies something difficult like analytic number theory, or someone like you who powerlifts over some "Disneyadult" whose life revolves around buying Made-in-China Disney branded products (i.e. their hobby is just clicking "buy" on some site).
They are trying to suggest, I think, that no hobby is pure from rampant consumerism. Which is probably correct. I don't see what that has to do with those of us who don't feel the need to buy $100 socks or $1000 juice machines or what have you.