John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio: Nothing and Everything — What Consumers Expect from the New Normal at the Huffington post (Adafruit mention below!)…

Altogether, the changing attitudes and consumer behavior, which are embraced by more than half the people we surveyed, suggest a shift in thinking about how we spend everything from our money, to our time, and our energy. With each dollar consumers are voting for certain values — sustainability, self-reliance, craftsmanship, and yes, kindness — and rewarding organizations that seem to hold them. This is how Walmart became the nation’s biggest purveyor of locally grown, organic produce. It’s also how a tiny company called Adafruit Industries, which caters to do-it-yourself engineers and gadget geeks, has grown steadily and added to its workforce through-out the economic crisis. These are just two of fifty companies we interviewed that are riding the spend shift wave to profitability and expansion.

Their new book is here