Nostalgia – Packet of Crisps

“Although, we would consider ourselves far from retirement age, we can’t help, but dwell on past memories.”

Most of us know that moment. When we were kids sitting at the kitchen table with our grandparents and listening to their stories of the olden days, merely nodding approvingly from time to time, yearning it to be over that we get down to business and collect our Sunday pocket money. Amusingly, not many years later, we find ourselves in a similar situation, but in the shoes of our grandparents. Although, we would consider ourselves far from retirement age, quite the contrary actually, we can’t help, but dwell on past memories. Moments we have seemingly forgotten, but reappear, when we least expect them to.

So, it appears that the longing for passed moments is not exclusively reserved for the elderly, but is an overall human experience, not necessarily dependent on our current age.

Before we move any further, let us better understand the meaning behind nostalgia. In the title, we were already implying that it is a bittersweet feeling. Why bittersweet? Sweet, because it reminds us of happy and enjoyable moments in our past, but also bitter, because no matter what we try, we ultimately cannot get them back.

Thus, nostalgia is not only a positive or negative feeling, it rather lies in-between, integrating both components, which makes it inherently complex. We are capable of feeling nostalgic not only about our own past lives and experiences, but also as a whole society. We see that in the hippie revival parties that are celebrated primarily among the young, who were not even close to being born, when the movement actually took place. Similarly, the recent rise in professionally organised 1920s parties with authentic costumes, fake money and the fitting dancing style are aimed at reproducing the exact vibe of the roaring 20s for a target group that merely wants to experience, how it must have been like to party during these days.

We cherish everything with a retro touch, from bikes with old leather saddles to “granny fashion” and top notch smartphone audio systems that look like old radios from the 50s. Marketers put great effort into reproducing experiences and repackaging products with a retro design, whether that is a trending TV series that aims to authentically replicate the advertising industry in the 60s (Mad Men) or BMW having reanimated the Mini car brand.

“We cherish everything with a retro touch, from bikes with old leather saddles to granny fashion”

To put some figures behind that, the vintage fashion & resale market alone generates annual, recurring revenues of USD 4 billion, which is only a tiny fraction of the entire industry (Association of Resale Professionals, 2016).

So let’s explore a bit more, why we appear to fancy these products and are sometimes even willing to pay a premium price for them?

The author believes, what ultimately makes these product offerings so attractive and successful in the market environment is twofold.

One, we are talking about a light version of nostalgia here, no the strong bittersweet feeling, but rather the positive component: Enjoying and reliving our memories in an easy way, supported by the products, we can buy. And second, we believe our society is increasingly becoming more nostalgic. Why is this the case?

For that explanation, we probably have to spend a few more sentences on. One reason is life expectancy continues to rise with current levels of life expectancy at an average for both genders at 78 years in the US. We simply have more time to feel nostalgic. But this does not explain, why we already tend to feel nostalgic at a young age. This has to do with another recent development. Due to our ever accelerating society, we experience more transitional moments in a shorter period of time for which 50 years ago an entire life would have been reserved.

For instance, in the 1950 it can be assumed that the majority of the population continued to live at the same place, where they were born. Today, the chances that one will move at least once over his lifetime outside of the community they were born in are above 50% . This fact applies especially for the Generation Y, which in search for self-realisation and job prospects is willing to move places several times, whereas its parent generation has primarily focused on building a steady life in one place.

With the constant moving come certain side effects. We have a life in one country, as well as in another, we have friends & family in one corner of the globe and another one, where we once used to live. We are confronted with a similar situation in our private lives. In the 1960s, a majority of the population married their first partner they have been together with. Nowadays, with divorce rates in the 50 percentages, a new concept has evolved that we spend a part of our life with one partner and another portion with another, evidently leading to more transitional moments, different lives we have been living and a wide range experiences we have been making. Whether this lifestyle is automatically richer and fuller can be debated, but it certainly makes it more complex in an emotional sense. This is exemplified in our yearning for retro products giving us the opportunity to relive a part of our lives that has ultimately been in the past. Due to our modern lifestyle, we accumulate more of these moments that can lead to nostalgic feelings. It also makes us think back to simpler, happier times, where semingly everything was in proper order, painting the past in brighter colours than they actually were.

So, where does all this leave us? Will we become a society that is partly stuck in our past experiences and overly confused to move on?

“No matter, whether dark or bright experiences, they should not be erased from our memory”

In a certain way, we have always been that way. Our past stories as an individual and a society define, who we are and cannot simply be eradicated. Germany, for instance, has a continuing debate whether, the younger generation should still be educated with such great emphasis on the holocaust, which is apparently instilling a culture of guilt. Indeed, balance is the right approach here. No matter whether dark or bright experiences, they should not be erased from our memory, but neither should they define our future decisions and prevent us from evolving beyond our past. They should be seen as what they are; past memories, which are sometimes bright or darker, and we can dive into them from time to time, we can buy products to cherish that sweet feeling of nostalgia and see the lines between past, present and future blur.

Utltimately, we believe that the different phases, we find ourselves in are not meant to be emotional baggage, but make us a better, well-rounded and wiser individual, enabling us to draw from a diverse collection of experiences at a young age.

If we made you nostalgic now, check out these retro & nostalgia brands approved by Packet of Crisps:

Rapha cycling wear: http://www.rapha.cc/ch/de/
20s parties organiser in Germany, Austria & Switzerland: http://www.boheme-sauvage.net
Retro bikes – Scampi Cicli Zurich: http://www.scampi-cicli.com/index.html
Polaroid photography products: http://www.polaroid.com