*TEASER* The Dire State of Consumer Trust In 2026

0:00Gallup confidence in institutions says that 27 % of Americans express a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the nation's 14 core institutions. That's only 27%, which if you take the inverse of that, it's 73 % distrust it. That's really bad. That's really bad. That's crazy. 27 % saying that they trust the nation's 14 core institutions is one point above the all time low. And that's the fifth straight year below 30%. So I don't know, something broke in the pandemic and it's not been repaired yet. Here's an interesting stat. And this is something that I think bears to keep in mind if you're in the industry if you're in retail um in any capacity 28 of people uh that gallup tracks say that they have confidence in the medical system which means 72 do not right yep i think we all can recognize that many people do not trust our medical system in the United States of America.

1:00Yes. Okay. That is matched since 2023, almost trend line based with how many people also distrust the retail industry. And so if you think to yourself how much people distrust the medical system, you can almost layer over the same amount of distrust and it follows along with the same trend line, how much people distrust retail. Sheesh. That should say something to you. Yeah, that's bad. You've been listening to a teaser clip from Future Commerce After Dark, a weekly bonus content series exclusively for subscribers of Future Commerce Plus. Get ad-free episodes of the podcast and more After Dark content by subscribing to Future Commerce Plus today.

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