Brainstorming Ideas

20 Story Ideas

1. Community Events

– Local shops sponsoring events around town to help themselves and each other

2. Farmers Markets

– Exploration of the multiple farmers markets around Athens

3. Coffee shop lifestyle

– What’s the fascination with local coffee shops? Why are they any better than Starbucks?

4. Local, Local, Local

– Co-ops, farm to table, farmers markets, small businesses; a millennial trend that isn’t really a trend at all – the return to local-based economy

5. Hipsters

– What does it mean to be hipster? Is there a definitive point at which you achieve ‘hipster status’ or is it what you make of it?

6. Having it All

– The “having it all” lifestyle phenomenon—a woman is no longer permitted to just work or just be a stay at home mom, she has to try and have it all or is seen as lazy. What kind of lifestyle does this expectation entail?

7. Trend Alerts

– How are trends established? Where is the black market of ideas from which trendy stores receive their insider info? How do they catch on in time to stay relevant?

8. Big bad Outfitters

– How are small town boutiques surviving in the face of massively funded stores like Gap and Urban Outfitters sneaking into downtown turf?

9. Thrift Stores

– The draw of trendy hipsters to thrift stores since Macklemore’s song came out

10. Health Food

– How to maintain a trendy health food lifestyle on a college student’s budget

11. Fun for Pennies

– How to find and attend the best events of the season on a college student’s budget

12. Hip with the Youngsters

– The story of boomers and Gen-x-ers and how they stay adrift in a sea of ever changing tech and trends

13. Grocery Underdogs

– EarthFare, Daily Co-op, and La-Z Shopper—how do they compete with stores like Kroger and Publix?

14. Nesting in Athens

– How students establish a connection with Athens when they’re only here for 4 years (or a few more)—how they make Athens their home

15. Music Scene

– Athens is known for its music scene, but how can fledgling musicians compete in such an intimidating music market? How do they get going? What is the process they go through to get a foothold?

16. Grad Student among Children

– How is it being a grad student in a town full of undergraduates when every event is aimed at a younger crowd?

17. Special Snowflake

– In a trendy town like Athens, only the fresh survive. How do the hippest places in town differentiate themselves to stay alive in a dog-eat-dog trend-focused town?

18. The Plight of the GDI

– With the massive Greek population at UGA, it can sometimes feel difficult to feel apart of the action of the university and feel as if you’ve made a concrete group of friends—how do GDIs find a niche beyond the obvious Greek life?

19. Technological Integration

– Apps, widgets, social media, and geocaching—how does evolving with technological innovation keep the Athens lifestyle fresh and moving forward?

20. Bars vs. Pubs

– The advantages and disadvantages of pubs and bars—which style of social drinking atmosphere is better?

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Profile Ideas:

1. Hipsters– this is the perfect story for which to conduct a profile. In a hipster town like Athens, it wouldn’t take too much digging to find a hipster to profile– their personal style, what it means to them to be a hipster, etc. and apply it to the movement in general. Or better yet, find a sort of store that supplies fashion and trendy items to said hipsters and do a profile of the owner on what their motivations are and how they themselves contribute to the ‘hipster’ lifestyle.
2. Community Events-– this would be another prime story to shape as a profile. The local boutiques for which Athens is known are constantly sponsoring and organizing events for the community. One example is the Cine Fashion Show from August. I could profile the coordinator for the event, Rachel Barnes of Dynamite. She is not only the event coordinator for Cine, but is also a manager at Dynamite Clothing. She would be the perfect person to do a profile on to cast a light on community events in Athens.

Trend Ideas:

1. Thrift Stores — we all know of Macklemore’s wildly popular song ‘Thrift Shopping’ which called attention to a potentially massive new frontier for clothes shopping. After his song was released, though hipsters would argue that they always shopped at thrift stores, collecting the newly cool-again pieces from the 80s and 90s for dirt cheap prices at thrift shops became the coolest way of shopping for fashion. This is a cut and dry example of trends and simply talking to fashion merchandising majors and thrift store owners would provide adequate source material.
2. Local, local, local— hip towns across the country are jumping aboard the buy local bandwagon and insisting that the best and only way to ensure merchandise and food products’ authenticity and quality is to locally source the products. Farmers’ Markets have always been founded on this principle, but in recent years, the backlash against big business has driven the masses to a new wave of cultivation. Small, local vendors are selling in bigger name stores, storefront family businesses are popping up everywhere, and even big name food corporations like Chipotle and Barberitos are being founded on the local farming principle. This is a perfect example of delving into a developing trend.

Pick’em Ideas:

1. Behind the Scenes– Farmers Markets— it would be incredibly simple to go behind the scenes at a local farmers market in Athens. The Athens Farmers Market meets every Saturday in Bishops Park and is FULL of local vendors. I could get in contact with the lead coordinators of the market and find out not only how the market came to be but watch the day-to-day or hourly functioning of the market on Saturdays to explore the extent of the project and how it affects the community.
2. Localizer– Big Bad Outfitters— a well known battle in our country is the fight between big and small business; the fight between capitalistic gain and local distinction. Small business Saturdays are a big movement in this fight between store types, for instance. To localize this issue, one needs to look no further than downtown Athens. Urban Outfitters has moved into a large commercial space downtown leaving controversy in its wake with townies and students decrying it for pushing out the ‘little guy’ boutiques and small businesses so ingrained in Athens’ downtown. An exploration into this smaller instance when compared to the larger issue in the nation would be an interesting perspective.