Episodes

  • The Abercrombie & Fitch Shopping Experience
    Jan 11 2025
    Devin, Andy, and special guest Leslie Price (check out the excellent Hello Gloria newsletter!) explore some meanings of Abercrombie & Fitch: from its 1890s founding as an upscale sporting goods store through the dizzying and problematic Mike Jeffries horny-prep aughts to the more inclusive rebrand of today. How does Leslie’s experience of working at A&F in 2000 shape her sense of the brand? Was working there more of an MLM-lite scheme than a job? Why were they punching piles of cargo pants? How was it different from working at the Gap? What does the current A&F NFL line mean? How are hoodies and fidget culture related? Is the current A&F aesthetic, like cropped clothes for men, shaped in part by overseas interest in the brand? How soft are those kids' tees?? What is gained and what is lost in this new, less clubby iteration of Abercrombie? Links: Wikipedia on A&F Fast Company on the current success of A&F Netflix A&F doc, White Hot Video footage of aughts A&F store Vintage A&F badminton ad Fashionista essay about nostalgia for the good/bad old days at A&F Story in MEL of perfumer who created Fierce Cologne Joan Didion Gap ad What It’s Like by Everlast Notes: The Seth Green character referenced was in Can't Hardly Wait rather than She's All That, and Dawson's Creek took place in Massachusetts, but was filmed in and inspired by North Carolina... Full Carts Social: Bluesky, Instagram Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music insertion by Skye MacLeod Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com
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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • The 8-Bit Christmas Experience
    Dec 25 2024

    For a holiday episode, D&A discuss 80s nostalgia (and Xmas shopping) movie 8-Bit Christmas (2021): toy fads, malls in movies, old school video games…. Was the inclusion here of Rampage an artistic or executive decision? How have bullies and gendered boots changed since 1988? What does cursive mean now? Has the age of manias around fad toys come to an end? What does it mean that Steve Zahn's dad character is a fan of ⁠Steely Dan⁠? Are most mall scenes shot at Toronto’s Woodbine Mall and Fantasy Fair?? Would the in/famous Pretty in Pink test screenings play differently now? Should the maxim “Everyone has a novel in them” be updated to “Everyone has a chatty movie podcast in them”? (Episode contains spoilers about 8-Bit Christmas.)


    Links:

    Glycerine (Eucerin???) by Bush

    8-Bit Christmas script

    Paperboy and Rampage music

    Joseph Trapanese, composer

    Compilation of Grocery Store Scenes

    Oh, God! (1977) trailer


    Social: Bluesky, Instagram

    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music insertion by Skye MacLeod

    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com


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    1 hr
  • The Japanese Grocery and Gift Shop Shopping Experience: Part 2
    Dec 19 2024

    In part 2/2, Devin and Andy dig into the grocery half of Ten Ichi Mart. Would you rather have a poster of Gursky’s 99 Cent, or of this story’s lead ramen image? How about both?? Do you know the backstory of Cafe Du Monde canned coffee? Have you ever had hot canned coffee from a vending machine? Do you need to study this tutorial on how to open onigiri as much as Andy does? Are you curious about Big, Raw Pepsi? If you find a product like Laoganma Spicy Chili Crisp transformative and want to share this information with a friend, is it enough to merely mention it, or do you make a video singing its praises like John Cena, or are you duty bound, in the spirit of They Live, to fight that friend in a trash-strewn alley until they submit and see the truth of what you know?


    Ramen Fried Rice


    Social: Bluesky, Instagram


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music insertion by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com


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    48 mins
  • The Japanese Grocery and Gift Shop Shopping Experience: Part 1
    Dec 11 2024

    In part 1 of a two-parter, the Full Cart Fellows check out the Gift Shop half of Ten Ichi Mart, a Japanese Grocery/Gift Shop. “Don’t Call It An ‘Ethnic’ Grocery Store,” urges the NYTimes (also: can we get a framed print of that lead image of an array of ramen??) Is a Zojirushi rice cooker worth it? What’s the difference between a variety store, gift shop, and “treat store”? How much stuff is too much stuff, and who would decide how many hoodies or magnets everyone gets? Is that a banana slicer in your shopping basket? What’s the coolest backpack dangler? Who’s intimidated by recipes that call for you to do something “quickly”??


    Social: Bluesky, Instagram


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music insertion by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com

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    32 mins
  • The Fishs Eddy Shopping Experience
    Dec 4 2024

    After a stop at lunch hotspot S&P, Devin and Andy check out eclectic New York dishware shop Fishs Eddy. Should all stores have their own graphic memoir? Where do you fall on the cheeky-to-bawdy scale? How much should an irregular dinner bowl cost? Should prices correspond directly to display style? Are we at peak pet portrait? How best to commemorate the Metrocard as it is sunsetted? How cool is it that instead of being a gift shop inside of a museum, Fishs Eddy is a great store for gifts that has its own museum??


    A few links:

    Fishs Eddy x Susan Alexandra collab

    Fishs Eddy x Charlie Harper and Todd Oldham collab

    Disorder by Will Oldham

    Do You Know the Way to San Jose? by Dionne Warwick


    Social: ⁠Bluesky⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music inserting by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com

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    59 mins
  • The YETI Store Shopping Experience
    Nov 24 2024

    Devin and Andy visit the YETI NYC store and meditate on cult coolers and insulated drinkware. What if it turns out the bear from the company that tests products for bear-proofness is just someone in a bear suit? Is Texas band Khruangbin (whose name is the Thai word for airplane, which Devin started to say) the ideal in-store music for Yeti? How big can the Yeti tent get without collapsing? What color is your Yeti Loadout bucket, metaphorically? Is Yeti Rambler vs. Stanley Tumbler our most vital rivalry??


    2016 SBNation article on Yeti

    Yahoo Finance article about opening of Yeti New York City


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music inserting by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com

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    50 mins
  • The Five Below Shopping Experience
    Nov 10 2024

    Devin and Andy visit allowance store/doodad emporium Five Below. Is it succeeding at its napkin-writ founding mission statement of “You can always say ‘yes’ to the trendiest coolest high-quality stuff that you just gotta have”? Does the Dribble Zone, an in-store space where ball-bouncing is encouraged, show that we can exist freely and follow rules, a kind of mini social contract in action? What should a Scrub Daddy cost? Could the cozy-coded seasonal section win over Grinches? Is this in fact the best candy store chain in the country, and are they intentionally putting the old-coded candy behind a pillar? Is this Doritos puzzle a "gotta have" item??


    Hackensack by Fountains of Wayne


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music pasting by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com


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    59 mins
  • The Wilson Flagship Shopping Experience
    Oct 19 2024

    Devin and Andy check out the new(ish) Wilson Sporting Goods flagship in SoHo. Is figuring out a way to play tennis in NYC a sport in and of itself? How cool is the playground/park in this store? Can more than one guy in a neighborhood be retro-headband guy? What do we think of lounge spaces in stores? Are the books in back for sale, and do you have a copy of Budge on Tennis?


    Theme music by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Jed Becker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, cover art by⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Margaret Flatley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, music files cut and pasted artfully in by Skye MacLeod


    Contact: FullCartsPod@gmail.com


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    46 mins