$230 notebooks, digital cameras and miniature furniture: Why Gen Z’s desire to travel abroad is a boon for businesses.

Leslie Edelman ran Tiny Doll House, a small doll shop in New York’s Upper East Side, for 35 years. Eighteen months ago, new customers started coming to the store, he says.

In addition to Edelman’s regulars — parents, grandparents and collectors — groups of 20-somethings now flock to the store on Saturday afternoons. They laugh with each other, text furiously and buy Labubu mini keys, Pez dishes and mock Eames chairs. Others tell Edelman, “I saw you on TikTok,” he says.

“There’s a hell of a lot of photography,” says Edelman, a 75-year-old New Yorker.

Business owners like Edelman say they’ve noticed a shift in consumer behavior: Gen Zers are increasingly seeking out and spending money on traditional school supplies and practices in an effort to get more out of the country. For small businesses that sell tactile, nostalgic products and services — like cell phones, sewing kits or decorating services — the average shopper age is lower and revenue is higher, from existing and new customers alike, some owners say.

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Art events and retro-style in-person have increased in popularity since the CCIDID-19 pandemic, says Marni Shapiro, co-founder and managing partner of research and consulting company The Retail Tracker. In particular, physical products related to offline entertainment have reached new sales this winter as the phrase “going analog” has gained virality on social media, he says.

Nearly three-quarters of adults will enter a design program in 2025, up from 62% in 2019, according to Mintel research. The arts and crafts industry is expected to be valued at $2.5 billion by 2025, led by supply companies such as Crayola and Faber-Castell, according to a Fortune Business Insights report.

“If we go more and more digital and use more AI, the counter-measures will be tactile,” Shapiro says. “Nostalgia, for me, is the biggest one [retail] trend out there. It is not dying. It’s getting stronger.”

Louise Carmen, a company based in Paris, sells leather journals that are available at two stores and online for up to €198.55 – or $238.55 – before being sold. The show reached a new American audience during the year 2023, says the founder Nathalie Valmary, after her daughter started taking pictures of the eye of the TikTok videos of the hands of the workers creating leather articles with pictures, colored ropes and charms.

The videos have racked up views, some exceeding one million, and about 60 percent of Louise Carmen’s online sales are now shipped to the US, Valmary says. Some Americans have even posted online about booking trans-Atlantic flights to buy notebooks in Paris.

Political and economic instability — such as labor market tensions, the decline in home ownership and rising U.S. housing costs — often return people to the products, styles and experiences of their, or their parents’, childhood, says Shapiro. Also, the more time you spend scrolling on your phone, the more likely you are to engage with the media about this disorder, so entertainment that keeps your hands free is becoming more and more popular.

Journaling helps Valmary collect and reflect on her thoughts and creativity, she says. He believes that the younger generations benefit the most from the process. Gen Zers’ lives and experiences are “exposed on social media, [posted] from them or their friends or their families, from a very young age.” When writing by hand in a magazine, “they don’t have to, they can just be honest.”

Part of “going analog” involves aesthetics, too: Nostalgic-looking products can be a fashion statement, says Camp Snap president Trevor George. His Redondo Beach, California-based company sells screen-free digital cameras that automatically apply film-mimicking filters to photos, ranging from $70 to $200 each. Since its launch in late 2023, the brand has sold more than one million cameras, George says.

The company’s sales were up 350% at the end of last year compared to the same period in 2024, he says, and celebrities like Taylor Swift and Idris Elba have been spotted wearing Camp Snap products. “Smartphones are a bit boring,” he says. “Being out with your friends or in the community and producing this looks like an old-school camera, but with digital, it looks like your statement.”

Gen Z consumers are between the ages of 14 and 29, meaning many have reached an age where they want to explore their identity and have less money to do so, says Peter Fader, a marketing professor who focuses on consumer behavior at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In a sense, the generation’s affinity for analog devices — or modern versions — represent many of Gen Zers’ often-cited desire to reject the masses, Fader says. In a sense, they’re doing the same as the generations before them: “Going analog” is not that different from millennials’ obsession with polaroid cameras and record players in the 2010s, says Fader.

Many Gen Zers still post about their analog experiences online, which Fader says is a testament to the convenience of today’s technology and its deep roots in many people’s lives. But even going analog for a little while can help people find new and rewarding hobbies that improve their lives, he says.

“This is an analog thing, I’m not going to say that it’s a passing time, because there will continue to be fads with each generation… [but] “I wouldn’t bet big on the rebirth of analog,” says Fader.

The identity of any type of nose is bound to ebb and flow, Shapiro says. Edelman suspects that his store has survived for decades because people want physical things that can bring back strong memories, he says.

“People can create a living room they’ll never have,” says Edelman. She still remembers the first dollhouse she built for her grandson decades ago, a pink Victorian-style house with white fabric and small brown shingles. “I feel like there’s warmth and comfort in looking at these things, holding them.”

Conversions from euros to USD were made using the OANDA conversion rate of 1 euro to $1.18 USD on March 3, 2026.

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