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Maybe you’ve had a rough day. Maybe you just finished a task — big or small. Or maybe you just feel like you deserve something.
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Enter little treats.
Unlike feasting at a celebratory dinner or ordering the big-ticket item that’s been in your virtual cart for months, little treats are more approachable. Think an $8 matcha from a cafe, a gourmet cookie from a bakery or a couple of scoops of your favorite flavors from an ice cream shop.
The exact treat is up to the individual. What makes a little treat is its relatively low cost, its accessibility and, perhaps most importantly, its ability to instantly boost your mood.
Anyone can enjoy small indulgences, but “little treat culture” has taken off among Generation Z, the group between Millennials and Generation Alpha. Sources disagree on the exact birth years, but the oldest in Gen Z were born around 1996-97, and the youngest were born around 2010-12.
Publications including The New York Times, Fortune, Self and Food & Wine have picked up on the spending habits, detailing how Gen Z justifies little treats as rewards, self-care or even ways to create a feeling of control amid a chaotic, uncertain world.
In an August report, Bank of America analyzed its clients’ data and found that Gen Z (which the report defines as people born after 1995) is spending more than all other generations on bakery, bagel, ice cream and frozen yogurt merchants — popular categories for little treat spending.
I wanted to find out how Gen Zers in Raleigh are practicing little treat culture, so while I was at N.C. State University on move-in day, I asked about it.
Elementary education student Anna Grace Tyson, a junior from Rocky Mount, said she indulges in little treats two or three times per week. Often, it’s a coffee — specifically, a hot vanilla latte from Jubala, one of the Triangle’s most popular cafes.
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“It’s a reward for doing a small task, or also to meet up with a friend and catch up,” Tyson told me. “Meeting up with a friend is an excuse to get coffee or a cookie or something like that.”
Tyson doesn’t budget for little treats but said she’s aware that the costs can add up.
“I would say I’m mindful of it,” Tyson said.
Raleigh resident and first-year N.C. State student Eden Sharp also buys little treats for herself.
“I love to treat myself to a coffee or lunch or something like that,” she said.
Like Tyson, Sharp doesn’t set aside money for little treats, but said she thinks about what she’s buying. It’s not mindless ordering.
Not everyone purchases food, though.
First-year N.C. State student Matthew Detwiler, an environmental engineering student from Hendersonville, didn’t immediately know what I meant when I asked if he buys little treats — though his older sister understood right away.
After I explained little treats, he realized that he does, in fact, indulge, but what brings him joy can’t be acquired at a cafe.
“Usually it’d be like a CD or some clothes, something like that,” he said. “I’m not a big spender on drinks or food, stuff like that. It’s more something that I’ll use.”
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Does Detwiler leave room in his budget for little treats?
“Not intentionally,” he said. “But I’m pretty good about not spending a ton.”