Posted on 06/11/2017 12:58:55 PM PDT by Drew68
Millennials are threatening dozens of industries.
They don't buy napkins. They won't play golf. They aren't buying homes or cars. And they're not even eating at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Millennials' financial decisions have been heavily covered by media organizations — something that has infuriated many of the generation, as news that "millennials are killing" another industry has become a common headline.
"This is just some more millennial-blaming B.S.," one reader wrote in response to a recent Business Insider article with the headline "Millennials are killing chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's."
When millennials decide en masse against purchasing certain items, from hot wings to homes, it has a measurable, negative impact: declining sales, layoffs, and, in some cases, bankruptcies.
Still, naysayers are right about something.
While millennials' preferences have had a destructive impact on several companies and industries, they had no say in creating the environment that has restricted their income and shaped their financial perspective. Instead, if we're looking for someone to blame, we can target the generation that created a perfect storm for molding a uniquely thrifty generation focused on short-term rewards: baby boomers.
During the recession, millennials were in their teens or graduating from college. In other words, as millennials came of age, they saw their parents' generation plunged into financial distress.
"I think we have got a very significant psychological scar from this great recession," Morgan Stanley analyst Kimberly Greenberger told Business Insider. "One in every five households at the time were severely negatively impacted by that event. And, if you think about the children in that house and how the length and depth of that recession really impacted people, I think you have an entire generation with permanently changed spending habits."
As a result, Greenberger says, millennials don't spend as freely as previous generations.
They'll avoid paying full price for clothing, something that is wreaking havoc on retailers like Macy's and Sears. They'll avoid investing in the stock market, having seen how investments can go wrong. If they're going to spend on a nice dinner, it is more likely to be at an independent restaurant that can provide a special experience than at the predictable Applebee's or Buffalo Wild Wings.
Reacting against boomers' financial decisions and spending habits is part of the puzzle in understanding why millennials are making choices that could kill companies that based their business on appealing to established trends. However, millennials' scars are not purely psychological.
Seven in 10 students graduate from college with student loan debt, owing an average of over $30,000, according to the Institute for College Access and Success — and that's ignoring the massive debt of students who took out loans but did not graduate. As student-loan debt has skyrocketed, income — both for graduates and millennials who haven't attended college — has failed to substantially increase.
With these economic burdens, it is difficult for millennials to save money. Thirty-one percent of "young millennials," ages 18 to 24, and 33% of "older millennials," ages 25 to 34, don't have any money in their savings account, according to GOBankingRates.
Debt and a lack of money in savings obviously make it harder to make major investments such as buying houses or cars. Couple this with a lack of trust in financial institutions (again, thanks to the recession) and you have a generation that is more likely to spend on experiences or something they can enjoy now, instead of saving up for an uncertain future.
As a result, when millennials splurge, it will be on something like avocado toast — a $10 treat instead of a multithousand-dollar investment that many lack both the money and the faith in the economy to make.
All of this is not to say millennials aren't killing certain industries. They are, as their preferences force companies to adapt or perish.
But when a headline says millennials are killing another industry, it is worth remembering who and what created a generation that has become an industry-murdering machine.
Funny thing, it was probably a Boomer or Gen-X'er who came up with the idea, "If we cut these in half, people can use them for napkins."
local restaurants > locally owned restaurants
If I was raising a child now days, I might keep him away from cell phones until he had read all the books written before 1965.
We’re told they all have trouble finding decent jobs, have very little money, and half live in their parents’ basements - hard to see how they have enough financial clout to kill any industry all by themselves.....
For the upper class of the planet, which includes most in the West, we’re approaching post-scarcity economics. STUFF is cheap.
So you value novelty, uniqueness and experience over physical items. The new show of wealth is not uber expensive items but having a beauty routine that shows you have massive amounts of free time, a workout routine that proves you have the luxury of time to do it, the pictures of travel that is exclusive.
My boys are in their 30’s. I supported them through college by covering books, tuition and a LOT of free meals and weekends at the house, but they were technically GONE soon thereafter and working hard and paying taxes and being self-supporting ever since.
I started prepping them at about age 16 to start making plans because living under my roof was NOT an option.
I know. I’m SO mean, LOL!
Eventually all the people who buy napkins, diamonds, play golf and eat at Appleby's are going to grow old and die. If Millennials don't do these things, their children won't either.
Well those losers certainly destroyed rock music.
75 million millennials...approx 13% unemployed.
their jobs are generally:
- servers
- cashiers
- interns
- healthcare
- sales associates
average salary of millennials is less than 38k a year.
They don’t have money to buy all that stuff or do all that stuff.
I would rather pay my due to intellectual property. I refuse to pirate.
It was a good time to be alive. I had a great military career, too. Was only mobilized once for Operation Desert Storm - but thanks to, ‘Stormin’ Norman’ and Superior Firepower, I stayed stateside. It was over before it started, though I was still on AD for 2 years.
Captains and Senior NCOs left in DROVES during the Clinton years. Made room for me to move up! (SFC, E-7 and had my Certification to become a Warrant Officer had a job opened up that I wanted.)
But then I got married and had kids. You CAN have it all - just not all at once. ;)
Plus they have never learned what real work is like. Nor do they understand the true fundamentals of life. They are the generation of participation trophies and were indoctrinated by leftists their whole life.
You did great by them. Today, I was having a friendly argument with my wife's friend who stopped by. She has two sons in their mid-thirties still living at home. She was lamenting the fact that her son and his girlfriend couldn't find or afford a nice house to buy, they are looking at nice homes in tony neighborhoods. I told her they need to look where there is affordable housing, and not expect too much, but buy low, build it up, then move upwards over a period of years. That's what worked for me and my wife, our first home was a wreck but it was ours and what we could afford at the time. We put sweat equity into it and sold it for several times what we paid for it.
So our friend says we can't expect her sons to do that, they want something nice now. I said they need to sacrifice, put aside money and settle for less. She said they do. However, she mentioned that they're going to Hawaii for a vacation. And they recently got back from a Mexico vacation last year. I said that is simply not sacrificing, and that seems to be a problem with Millennials. They want all the nice stuff up front! I feel bad for my wife's friend, as she has poor health and little money, still working at 63 and supporting her two boys who pay no rent (she is long divorced). But she's a liberal, and raised them with liberal views.
“She has two sons in their mid-thirties still living at home.”
I would’ve drown them in the river, had they been mine, LOL!
You gave EXCELLENT advice that, I’m sure, fell upon DEAF EARS. :(
Meantime, high paying jobs in skilled trades are going begging. The problem is, other than grunt programmers and such, too many millenials just don't know how to do anything useful, but expect a house and car like the one their parents had (after twenty years of working and saving.)
Millennials are lazy.
I’m a Senior Citizen, I quit buying napkins as paper towels work better, and WON’T eat at any place that serves me COLD food that is supposed to be HOT when delivered to the table. We had a bad experience of 2 sets of COLD RIBS at Chili’s a couple of weeks back, and won’t set foot in their business again. We had an Appleby’s a few doors down, it closed for the same reason.....Bad service and COLD food. And I don’t eat FRANKEN Food from McD’s. In my state they don’t allow my GUN. So they don’t see a dime of my money.
Going to the Movies...where is the PAUSE button so I can go to the RR, or is it that kid kicking my seat from behind or screaming for something from the over priced concession stand, or the cell phones going off...or the CRAP you made keeping me home? Come to think of it I have to take out my hearing aids to tolerate the to loud sound, and the lack of floor lighting make it a fall waiting to happen and a trip to the ER.
Yes, great liberty in Memphis.
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