Consumer trends 2018: is all shopping centred on an emotional need state?

20 years ago the Harvard Business Review published a paper that still resonates loudly with us today. Its title was 'Welcome to the Experience Economy'.
Amusingly, they represented the entire history of economic progress through the evolution of a birthday cake, starting with mothers making cakes from their own farm’s ingredients, through to the local soft play area, ending with hosting the entire party and throwing in a cake for free. 
While we are not economists, the salient point i