Haute Spot

Faith Popcorn knows what you’re going to do. Oftentimes way before you even know that you’re going to do it.

The Futurist, author and founder of the marketing consulting firm BrainReserve is famous for her predictive abilities. Foretelling human behavior, especially as it relates to purchasing and lifestyle choices, is her thing.

She’s credited with coining the terms “cocooning” and “cashing out,” as well as for telling America’s biggest brands what consumers are going to go for next. Examples of her prognostications include everything from the demand for bottled water to working remotely via computer, and even internet purchasing behavior.

“We worked with IBM on their first home computer,” says the author of the best-selling books “The Popcorn Report,” “Clicking” and “EVEolution,” noting that at that time, the machine weighed approximately 50 pounds. “We knew then that people would eventually be working at home.”

“Later, we were the first ones to talk about the connected home,” she continues. “People would be buying from the internet, figuring out their lives, communicating and running businesses on the internet. They wouldn’t have to leave their safe abodes to get anything they wanted: from a car, to food, to clothes, to education … even shopping for a home.”

Popcorn foresaw the coming home-focused behavior trend way back in 1981. Thus, “cocooning” entered the lexicon, putting her on the map as a forecaster. And in 1987, the rest of the world finally caught up; the term was added to the dictionary.

“It was one of the few times I was impressed with myself,” she laughs.

Since, the desire to cocoon—staying inside one’s home insulated from perceived danger, instead of going out—has influenced the world of fashion, home goods, technology, entertainment, delivery systems, and even the way that we interact socially, among other things. There would be no “Netflix and chill” were it not for this impulse.

For Popcorn, there is no better place to cocoon than her home in East Hampton. Specifically, her dock.

“It’s simple, it’s unadorned. I can just sit there and think ‘oh my god, I’m the luckiest person on the whole planet to get to enjoy this view,’” she says.

Popcorn, born Faith Plotkin, has been coming out east since she was a child. And she now does the same with her children, Georgica Swan Pond and Clara-Cecil, or “gg and cc,” whenever she can.

Water figures prominently in her happy memories, especially trips to Montauk with her parents, George and Clara, who loved to fish. In fact, she reports, Georgica Pond was named after her father.

Enjoying life’s simple pleasures is paramount, she adds. And they are here in abundance: family; friends (including her “bestie” and co-author Lys Marigold); the beauty of the landscape; and special places, such as LongHouse Reserve, BookHampton, the intimate movie theater, Round Swamp Farm, Iacono Farms (“where you could look out the window and think it was 1930; I love that,” she says) and the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.

The famous forecaster says that it’s inevitable that the Hamptons, and refuges like it, are so sought after. Seeking comfort, especially in todays charged cultural environment, is critical for the psyche. In fact, more and more second-home owners migrate out east for longer periods of time, she says.

“People are staying through Monday night or Tuesday morning and coming back on Thursday night. The city week gets shorter and the Hamptons week gets longer.”

Not surprisingly, items that promote and reinforce comfort, pleasure, and relief will steadily grow in influence and consumption, adds the East Hampton and Manhattan resident. Expect to see more and more brands “wrapping themselves in a blanket of goodness,” she notes, especially as businesses continue to tap into their customers’ purchasing power in regard to “atmosfear,” as it relates to protecting the planet, and “vigilante consumerism,” in supporting brands that mirror their core ideologies.

So, what’s beyond the near future? Currently working on her next book, “What’s Going to Happen: The Popcorn Report 2030,” Popcorn predicts that consumers will be “venturing farther out on the tightrope of technology.” We will see things like computers connected to our minds and not our keyboards, genetically engineered pets (and children), and customized robots that have been specifically programmed to intuit our every need and preference.

“Your robotic companion is your perfect companion that knows everything you want and provides it. Like Siri on steroids,” says the woman who prophesied our need to nest. “The ultimate in comfort and convenience.”