# New Consumer Trends Among Young People: Paying for "Emotional Value," Thai Small Shops Expand Against the Tide With Strategies

In a popular shopping mall in Bangkok’s retail district, a group of young people are carefully selecting products in front of the shelves. They are holding different styles of co-branded cups, repeatedly comparing the patterns and colors, and finally someone softly says, “This one looks more relaxing.” Then they walk to the checkout with satisfied smiles. This scene is becoming a microcosm of the current consumer market—young people are not no longer spending, but rather investing their money in places that touch their emotions more deeply.

In the past, people often linked consumption directly to their economic ability, believing that tightening wallets would inevitably lead to a decline in spending. However, today’s market shows a different trend: the willingness to buy large items is decreasing, but small, frequent “emotional consumption” continues to rise. A small item costing just a few dozen yuan may not bring about substantial change, but it can instantly lift spirits and serve as a “mobile power bank” for young people to combat stress. Industry insiders call this the modern interpretation of the “lipstick effect”—when economic uncertainty increases, people tend to seek immediate satisfaction through small, beautiful purchases.

Supporting this trend is a profound transformation in retail models. Take a certain Thai brand as an example; it rapidly rose to prominence with a “fast and nimble” strategy: weekly new store releases, low-priced but highly designed products, creating an immersive experience similar to “offline short videos.” When consumers enter the store, it feels like stepping into an ever-updating emotional playground, where each visit uncovers new surprises. This “fear of missing out” psychological mechanism is more attractive than traditional discount promotions and has driven rapid brand expansion—by 2026, the brand plans to open 35 new stores in Southeast Asia and gradually expand overseas.

Data further confirms this shift. In recent years, the affordable lifestyle retail market in Southeast Asia has maintained an annual growth rate of about 8%, with a significant increase in Z-generation small, high-frequency consumption. Young people are no longer pursuing “big and comprehensive” consumption but are breaking down their budgets into more segmented “happiness units”—a co-branded milk tea, a stylish phone case, or a soothing scented candle—all serving as carriers of their life attitude. This type of consumption is not downgrade but a redefinition of “emotional value for money”: within limited budgets, they seek to maximize emotional value.

Economic changes may influence the scale of consumption, but they cannot suppress people’s pursuit of happiness. As retail competition shifts from “price wars” to “emotion wars,” brands that better understand young people’s psychology and can create “dopamine moments” are quietly rewriting market rules. This transformation in consumption is fundamentally about better understanding human nature—after all, in uncertain times, what truly warms people is never the product itself, but the emotions and memories it carries.