The Rising Status of Grocery Items and Conspicuous Consumption

Like most people on the internet, we here at the CuJo love a good food-centric social media account. But our arguable favorite at the moment is Snaxshot, a Substack, Instagram, and online community run by journalist and snack oracle Andrea Hernández. 

Through analyzing products like Graza olive oil and adaptogenic cookie dough and the bold colors and chunky fonts that make every new food brand look vaguely the same, Andrea probes the vast culinary zeitgeist in search of what it tells us about both our generation and this moment in culture. 

This week, she joins us to crack open the fascinating and often disorienting cultural politics of what she calls “gentrification food.” We get into the culinary and aesthetic hallmarks of this genre of food and beverage, what we millennials are broadcasting about ourselves when we consume it, and how our consumption choices became a form of status signaling in the first place.  

We also talk about the differences between how Millennials and Gen-Z relate to food (and how it’s marketed to them accordingly); how artisanality became a mass-market concept; and why chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory are having a moment among young people. 

Join us as we uncover the economic and technological forces percolating beneath the surface of contemporary culture.

Subscribe to Snaxshot on Substack 

Follow Snaxshot on IG

Recommended reads by Andrea

“American Snaxboi” 

“Millennial Metamucil”

“For the love of chains”