The last thing Naomi Barrales needed was a 30-minute train delay. She had a two-hour commute home to central New Jersey ahead of her. To kill time, she decided to treat herself to two vegan birthday cake cookies.
It became a ritual. Whenever Ms. Barrales, a 25-year-old marketing associate for a fashion label, had a good day at work, like receiving a compliment from her boss or nailing a presentation, she treated herself to the same cookies. Later, she added a $1.50 Poppi drink to her list of sweet treats. Even if the office vending machine was out of Poppi and the local deli charged double, she didn’t mind, she said, because she deserved it.
“It’s something that I can just have and not think about,” Ms. Barrales said. “I don’t have to pinch my pennies.”
She and many others in Generation Z have embraced “treat culture,” the habit of indulging in small luxuries, like a $12 jumbo-size coffee, a $5 baked dessert or a $30 key-ring doll called the Labubu, to reward themselves or practice self-care, even if the treats are outside their budgets. Although many Gen Z-ers do not feel financially secure, more than half say they buy themselves a small treat at least once a week, according to a new survey of nearly 1,000 Gen Z adults from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits team.
The concept of using treats to cope or celebrate — which has been around for generations — gained pop culture traction in 2011 with a television episode of “Parks and Recreation” in which characters celebrated a day of pampering with the motto “Treat Yo Self.”
What sets Gen Z-ers apart from generations before them is how they have built an online community around the tradition, promoting it on their social feeds as a way to care for their mental health during uncertain times. On TikTok, they have shared their latest “little treat” hauls after failing an exam or doing chores, or just to show off conspicuous consumption.
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