Consumer and Retail Sector
Chipotle pushes into Mexico and gaming gets pricier, but consumers are cutting back on fun—and the supply chain is reshuffling.
Chipotle (a burrito chain) just opened its first location in Monterrey, Mexico this week, with plans to expand to Mexico City next year. The company is opening 350 to 370 new restaurants in the U.S. this year as part of a broader growth push after a sluggish 2025 (CNBC). This is Chipotle's bet that international partnerships can reignite growth without competing directly with Mexico's own food culture.
Netflix, Apple TV+, Spotify and gaming consoles all hiked prices in 2025–2026, and now consumers—especially Gen Z and millennials—are voting with their wallets by spending 4% less on home entertainment than a year ago (CNBC). Nintendo raised Switch 2 prices by 11%, Xbox CEO acknowledged gaming is becoming unaffordable, and electricity costs jumped 45% since 2019, making staying home less of a bargain. This reverses decades of tech getting cheaper, and it's a real pinch on household budgets.
Toyota announced a $3.6 billion expansion of its San Antonio plant that will shift Tacoma pickup production out of Baja California over four years, creating 2,000 new U.S. jobs (Yahoo Finance). The move reflects broader reshuffling of North American auto supply chains as companies navigate trade policy shifts and USMCA uncertainty. Mexico says the transition is gradual and Toyota isn't abandoning the country entirely, but this signals where automakers see the future of manufacturing.