THE TAP AND GO TYRANTS
Why your customers have zero patience and even less loyalty.
Demographics are dead. The days of neatly boxing consumers into age brackets, household incomes, and marital statuses are over. Welcome to the era of subcultures, where behaviors, beliefs, and motivations dictate how and why people spend. And at the ruthless, speed-obsessed heart of this shift? Meet The Tap & Go Tyrants. The relentless, efficiency-maximizing consumers who’ve turned frictionless shopping into their personal religion.
Who Are They?
They are the impatient elite, the checkout avoiders, the anti-line fundamentalists. They live by one rule: if it takes longer than necessary, it’s already too long. Cash? Dead. Waiting for a bill at a restaurant? Barbaric. They’ve got mobile wallets, one-click checkouts, and an unshakable intolerance for outdated experiences that still require more than a wrist flick. Their mantra? Speed is currency.
What Do They Believe?
The Tap & Go Tyrants are allergic to inefficiency. They are loyal only to convenience, and they believe that brands exist to serve their time-sensitive needs, not the other way around. The second a transaction involves unnecessary steps, they’re gone, with no second chances, onto the next.
Their BehavioUrs
The Tap & Go Tyrants don’t want a personal shopper, they want a seamless, hyper-efficient path to purchase. This means:
Checkout-free stores - Amazon Go got the memo early on this one and it appears to be working out well for them.
Ultra-fast delivery & pickup options - If same-day isn’t available, they’re out. If they have to pick up in store, it has to be in real time, knowing what they want is in store and ready to go.
Contactless everything - QR codes, voice commands, and AI-powered transactions. The minimal human contact involved, the better, perfect for those introvert looking to avoid eye contact or even having to speak a word.
Loyalty redefined - Forget points; reward them with saved time, it’s their highest valued commodity.
What This Means for Retail & Retail Property
For shopping centers and landlords, this shift is seismic. Foot traffic will belong to the locations that integrate frictionless experiences and close the gap on to the last mile. Think self-checkout hubs, mobile app ordering, and AI-powered concierge services. Slow, clunky, “heritage” retailers? They’ll become relics of an era The Tap & Go Tyrants have no patience for (but don’t worry, there’s still a place for them for our Time Travellers).
The bottom line? Speed wins. Inconvenience kills. And if you’re not engineering for the Tap & Go economy, your customers will be tapping out.
Want the full breakdown of the Conscious Economy and how subcultures like The Tap & Go Tyrants are shaping the future of retail? Download the full report now.
