Cash-strapped Gen Z has a bizarre new status symbol: Affordable affluence

Young Americans are hungry to assert their social dominance — and they’re using food to do it.Expensive snacks are the latest status symbol for cash-strapped members of Gen Z who are unable to afford the traditional markers of wealth, including expensive cars and designer clothes.

Fruity $19 smoothies from upscale supermarket Erewhon and $45 potato chips are among the most-coveted snacks for Zoomers, according to Business Insider, who first reported on the bizarre new food phenomenon.Traditional snacks, such as a bag of Cheetos or a McDonald’s hamburger, have fallen out of favor with Zoomers, who associate fast food and cheap, highly processed nibbles with low social status, while health foods are considered the new “in thing.” “Health is wealth, and food provides so much joy in every aspect, so maybe it says I’m a little bit of a hippie and dare I say a snob,” Gen Z TikTok star Jade Lily, 26, told the publication of her penchant for pricey snacks from Erewhon.

Whereas previous generations previously consumed snacks in the privacy of their own homes, many members of Gen Z are proudly posting their produce purchases online — with expensive and organic items seen as status symbols.Lily shared a TikTok video showing off the snacks she purchased during a $500 Erewhon grocery haul, while another TikTokker named Viktorija scored more than 270,000 likes on a video in which she tasted $200 worth of different Erewhon smoothies.

“Everything is content,” author Andrea Hernández told Business Insider of the phenomenon.“Everything has to signal something.”However, Hernández describes the snacks-as-status symbol phenomenon “the new lipstick effect,” a reference to an economic theory that asserts that people spend money on “more-affordable luxuries, like lipstick, during economic downturns.” “It’s a form of affordable affluence,” Hernández explained.

“We’re now getting into this phenomenon of food not as a basic need but as a lu...