Current Today is bcdW Magazine's daily newsletter — one story, one city, read through the eyes of the world.

We launch today in test flight. Each edition takes a single real story from one of our cities and asks: what does this mean for someone living somewhere else entirely? What ideas travel? What collaborations become possible?
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Khalid Hilal owns a fabric shop in downtown Amman. He didn't launch a wartime app. He didn't pivot his business model. He just kept the doors open — and his sales went up 30%.

Across Jordan, consumers have been shifting their spending away from international brands perceived as supporting Israel and toward locally made products. Hilal reported that sales at his shop have risen at least 30% compared to 2023. "People are actively seeking us out," he said. "The boycott has been a major turning point for many owners in the textile business."

At Amman's supermarkets, the picture is stark: shelves stocked with local products are bare, while international brands sit in abundance — approaching their expiration dates.

This isn't just about anger. It's about discovery. A purchasing manager at one of Amman's supermarkets said consumers are no longer choosing based on brand recognition alone. They're willing to try local brands, give them a chance, and develop loyalty. What started as a political act is becoming an economic habit — one that local brands may never have to give back.

And it's happening during Ramadan. Amman's seasonal bazaars are seeing surging demand for locally made goods — hand-painted pottery, traditional textiles, artisanal sweets. Art Media Boycott momentum and Ramadan's cultural emphasis on community spending have created a double tailwind for local makers.

Meanwhile, outside, drones have been crashing into Amman's outskirts. Warning sirens have sounded near the US Embassy. The embassy itself has shut down.

Ramez Al Hatoum, a mechanic in Marka — a district next to a military airport — says his business hasn't been affected. "We have seen this before. It is so boring," he said. "People have no time for this. They want to keep working and earning a living." The National

Public schools are open. The head of a major law firm near the embassy says he and his staff show up every day. The war, he said, "has not been a factor."

Amman's answer to war is not innovation. It's continuity. And the local brands that are growing right now didn't need a marketing campaign. They just needed the shelf space — and the consumer shift gave it to them.

(Sources: Jordan Times, The National — 2025–2026)

New York → NYC is home to the global headquarters of the brands losing shelf space in Amman. But the opportunity here isn't for the multinationals — it's for New York's independent makers. Amman's consumers are actively searching for alternatives with authentic stories. A Brooklyn-based artisan soap brand, a Harlem textile studio — these are exactly the kind of products Amman's market is now hungry for. The bridge: bcdW's Amman consultant can make the introduction.

Seoul → Korean beauty, food, and lifestyle brands are not on any boycott list. Amman's supermarket shelves have empty space right now — space that was held by Western brands for decades. This is a market entry window. Korean brands that move into Jordan during this shift won't just fill a gap — they'll arrive as the alternative, not the incumbent. KOTRA Amman should be mapping these openings today.

San Francisco → Amman's consumer shift is happening without an app, without a platform, without a growth hack. It's word of mouth, neighborhood loyalty, and bazaar foot traffic. For SF founders building consumer marketplaces or D2C platforms for emerging markets, this is the insight: in Amman, the most powerful distribution channel right now is trust. Build for that, not for clicks.

Medellín → Amman's fabric shops are filling the space that global brands left behind. Medellín knows this story — Mattelsa built a streetwear empire by being the local brand people see on every corner before they see Nike or Adidas. A Mattelsa × Amman collaboration — Colombian street style meets Jordanian textile craft — could be the kind of cross-border local brand partnership that bcdW was built to connect.

Dubai → Dubai's retail economy is built on international brands — the same brands losing ground in Amman. If the boycott wave reaches Dubai's malls at scale, the question becomes: does Dubai have enough local and regional brands to fill the space? Amman's experience is a 12-month preview. Dubai's retail strategists should be studying which local Jordanian brands grew fastest and why — then sourcing them for the UAE market before anyone else does.

Austin → Austin's "buy local" culture is instinct. In Amman, it just became necessity. The mechanics are the same: a consumer discovers a local brand, finds the quality comparable, and never goes back. Austin's independent businesses already know this — and Austin's trade organizations could partner with Amman's local brand ecosystem to share best practices on scaling local retail. Two cities, same DNA, different triggers.

Tel Aviv → Yesterday's story showed Tel Aviv building new products out of crisis. Today's story shows Amman building new markets out of crisis. Both are survival. Both work. The difference that matters for business: Tel Aviv's wartime apps may fade when peace comes. Amman's consumer habits are the kind that stick — once a shopper discovers a local brand they trust, the original rarely gets them back.

Your Next Opportunity Is Already Happening — Just Not Where You're Looking

The deal, the partner, the market, the project — it's out there. bcdW connects people who are ready to move with the places, people, and ideas that are ready to receive them. Business opportunities, revenue, partnerships, projects worth joining. Read the magazine that finds the connection before you do.

→ Read bcdW Magazine

Where Will the Olds Live When Everything Changes? We're All Getting There. Today's Old Is Tomorrow's Ours.

We are getting older. All of us. Faster than we planned, longer than we expected, in cities that were never designed for this. Climate is changing everything — heat, water, food, safety. And at the same time, the oldest generation in human history is growing larger, living longer, and asking a question no city has fully answered yet: where do we belong in all of this? Sim Eternal is the project building that story — not as a warning, not as a policy paper, but as a living narrative about the future city told by the people who will live in it the longest. The olds are not the problem. They are the point. And this city is theirs.

→ Visit Sim Eternal City Project

Current runs on one city, one story, every day. But the map is still being drawn.

We are looking for contributors who live and work inside the cities they write about — one story from your city, told the way only a local can tell it. We are also looking for readers who want to add their voice to other cities' stories — benchmarking, similar cases, collaboration ideas, a connection worth making. If a story from Medellín reminds you of something happening in your city, tell us. That response is the whole point.

Right now we are building across the Americas and Asia. But the dream is longer than that — from America to Afro-Eurasia, local to local, city to city, one real connection at a time.

More stories. More cities. More continents.

If you have one, send it.

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