Millennials Killed the Brink

Welcome to the Brink. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Ariel Casting, and today we're talking about millennials, of which I am technically one, though I claim that I'm actually a zennial, which is someone born between three where you're old enough to remember a childhood without all of this technology, but you're young enough to have adapted really well to it. I'm a gen xer, and I don't know what this strange machine is in front of me that you call

a computer. No, I'm I'm a gen xer and I cover technology for a living, so I reject that notion.

But the reason why we wanted to do this is because it has become a meme a meme being one of those ideas that gets passed around quite a bit that millennials are killing X. It's kind of an ongoing joke now, but it's a joke now because there were strings of articles and videos in etcetera that all had this kind of approach saying this young generation is dooming said business slash industry, slash chain, whatever it may be.

And why is that? Why are the young people so anti business and so anti X that they want to kill it? Yeah, And we were looking at all these different individual businesses we wanted to talk about on the

brink and realize they all had this common thread. So we decided to do this kind of giant jumble piece of amazing nous um and to just find out, like, is there anything to it, and can we draw any sort of broad generalized conclusions and and that sort of thing, and looking into it, I certainly think there are broad conclusions that we can come to. Though everybody's an individual and everybody has different thoughts and opinions and motivations. They

come from different life experiences, etcetera, etcetera. But one common thing is that millennials all grew up during the Great Recession, and so a lot of people attribute their desire to spend less money to that because they look at their childhood with economic uncertainty and don't want to fall into the same pitfalls and traps and hardships. And in some cases it's literally that they don't have the discretionary income

that older generations had at their same age. So what's happening is you've got certain older generations, the baby boomers primarily Gen xers. We're just watching what happens at this point, but but baby boomers in general, we're saying, you know, when I was their age, I had already put a payment down in my first house and that kind of stuff.

Largely that is true, but it seems to make the assumption, or it does make the assumption that people in this millennial generation are experiencing the same sort of parameters that the Baby Boomers were, and that's not true. The thing that I think really kind of got the backlash against this whole millennials killed. The ex meme Going was an issue of Time magazine that came out on May nine,

two thousand thirteen. The cover story it shows a a young woman who's taking a selfie and the title on the cover of this Time magazine is the Me Me Me generation. Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents. Why they'll save us all. And understandably, some younger people took exception to being painted with so broad a brush and the implications that go along with it,

the idea that they're all lazy narcissists. Certainly so obviously armed with the tools of the internet and technology, they did what any upset group would do. They took it and photoshop the heck out of it, and then they were like a thousand parody covers. They were making fun of Time for this, and they said, well, you know this, it comes across as being tone deaf, it comes across

as elitist. It's making assumptions that we happen to have the same things at our disposal that previous generations had, which is not true. And then we started to see more of the compilations, like the various articles that said here are all the examples of millennial killing the X. There were magazines and periodicals that would just run these

compilations to point out the absurdity there. Yeah. Now I will say that there are certainly businesses that are not making as much money with the millennial generation as with previous generations, and they tend to if you look at a broad range of these articles, they tend to be the same throughout all of the articles. But that's kind of how business works. You make a product until that product is no longer wanted or needed, and then you

adapt to the new market. Yeah, you can't just assume that once you make something, that something is going to be your meal ticket forever and ever and ever. So we're gonna take a look at some of the more nuanced elements of this whole meme and why things are the way they are, and also maybe even have a couple of comments about whether or not some of these supposed things that millennials are killing, maybe maybe it's not so bad. Maybe they deserve to die, is what we're saying.

There's one in particular, I think that you're thinking of, Oh, there's there are a couple are on the chopping block, but there's one in particular. And so we're gonna talk also about the fact that millennials, you know, they they have a limited amount of money, they're getting pickier about what they spend that money on. It doesn't necessarily mean they're spending the money more wisely. They may not. They may spend it on things they're not so wise but

are important to them. Yes, although I will say millennials are saving more as their generation than previous generations were, so they're they're saying, I'm not making a lot of money, so I'm going to put more aside to savings to tie me over. And we're also going to bust some myths through the whole thing, not just of the millennials are killing the X like it's some sort of malicious attack. We're also going to chat about how some of these things.

You know, maybe it was a little premature to say that millennials were killing this industry, like I'm thinking specifically, like the automotive industry, which seems like there might be a bit of an uptick. But we'll get into that. So there are a couple of other things we can say about millennials, sort of generalizations besides the money stuff, like the idea that as a generation, they end to

think of themselves as being very health conscious. Yes, sometimes that's proven true, and sometimes I think it's a little short sighted. Broad generalizations are really hard to make but they also are more socially aware. Yeah, although they may not be necessarily super active socially. Sometimes that social awareness comes in the form of tweeting and posting and not much action. Idealistically, they're socially aware. And then also they have been known to be, or have been stereotyped to

pick up technology quicker. They may not have a deeper understanding of the technology either. There have been some studies of kids who grew up with technology all around them, but they had sort of a very shallow, broad understanding of how to use the technology, but beyond that you couldn't go very deep with it. And I've certainly encountered this is anecdotal, so anecdotal evidence is not very worthwhile.

But it's fun. It is fun. But I've certainly encountered young people who didn't have a very comprehensive understanding of things like web search, Like they knew how to search for stuff, but it was very surface level and if they didn't immediately hit whatever it was they wanted, they gave up pretty quickly. And again that's anecdotal, and it's based on a handful of experiences. I cannot make a broad generalization over an entire generation based on that, although

I really want to because I'm old. You know what. Here's the thing, though, as a millennial, I tend to stereotype millennials. I've been really bad about it in the past when I look at trends and wanting more like immediate content and instant gratification type stuff with videos as opposed to personal interactions, like I stereotype as a part

of my own generation. I stereotype my own generation. I wonder how much of these generalizations also play into things like relying more and more on Internet for your interpersonal connections, which makes you perhaps less socially adept, and moving through real world social situations that sort of thing. Like a lot of these things I think end up being the realm of armchair psychology, which doesn't really have that much

value to without actual evidence backing it up. But we are going to go through and talk about some of these doomed businesses and categories in just a second. But in order to save a business, we're gonna take a quick break and thank our sponsor. All Right, Darriel, hit me tell me about some of the food related topics that millennials are supposedly slaughtering wholesale. Okay, So here's the thing.

More than any other industry, when researching this one, really looking into millennials killing different things, the food industry seems to be getting hit super hard. Casual dining, cereal, beer, light, yogurt, American cheese, man A's, diet Coke, McDonald's, like, all of these things are supposedly being killed by millennials. So I'm gonna go a little bit into some of those, and I guess so will you with me? Casual dining, so like Applebee's and Wild Wings and things like that, they

were not attracting millennials. Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, who could hang a name on you? They just they just weren't getting the same sort of traffic. They were saying that they were starting to see dramatic drop offs, and in fact, some restaurants like Applebee's specifically said that in their effort to try and attract a demographic that didn't have interest in going to their restaurants, they hurt themselves further by

ignoring kind of they're tried and true clientele. Yeah, and I think the problem here is that millennials of such busy lifestyle, some of them work multiple jobs to make ends meet, right, they prefer to cook at home or order delivery, or eat at a faster service restaurant, something like a Panera where you order and you get your food quickly, something in between McDonald's in a casual timing establishment. And you are seeing some millennials who are finding success

in their careers. Those millennials, many of them are gravitating towards what they would consider like foodie kind of experiences. So in those cases, they're saying, if I'm not making much money, I don't want to go to an Applebe's. It takes too much time and it's too expensive for the quality of food that I'm getting. That's that's kind of their argument. And if I am making the money,

I want to go someplace better. Yeah, I want to go to someplace that isn't a chain, that's unique and what feels to me like a good spending of my money. That also seems to be something I've noticed as well, that there's a kind of a common theme and a lot of these where millennials as a generation tend to be categorized as people who want to support smaller businesses as well as opposed to larger companies and chains. Well, it leads to a better experience. That is what millennials

are about. They'd rather have the experience than some sort of physical and so going to a unique restaurant is a unique experience. It's not going to Applebe's every Tuesday. Now, this is weird because I'm looking ahead at our notes right here, arial and you're telling me that they're not

just killing industries. Millennials are serial killers. They are Millennials say that it's not convenient for breakfast, oh that kind of cereal, And I wrote in my notes blasphemy, because I really enjoy a bowl of Cheerios or Cinventos crunch. To me, cereal is best eaten after you've had dinner. It's the late night's next. But I do I do tend to eat like two or three bulls at a time, probably tell waist nine. Anyhow, And they are having an

effect on the cereal industry. Between two thousand fourteen, there was a five percent drop in sales. And some of this could be tied in again to that perception of millennials being health conscious, right, yeah, yeah, they don't want all the sugar in the carbs, although you know they can always go to grape nuts. I've often thought, how can I eat some cardboard for breakfast? You know, there are lots of foods I've tried as an adult that I didn't like as a child that I now like.

Grape nuts I tried. I haven't figured out how to eat them yet, That's what I'll say. So the next one is the beer one, which I thought was interesting because I don't drink. I don't drink alcohol, so it's all foreign to me. But I had never really thought of millennials as being sort of beer a verse. It turns out that in large trends, they tend towards wine and liquor as opposed to beer. Yeah, and as a generation,

they drink less than previous generations. That being said, I do have a lot of friends who are really into microbrewing, and in fact, that leads me to a point that I thought was interesting, which is that I always associated millennials with especially certain millennials, with like the hipster movement,

and that hipsters and millennial hipsters really brought PBR. Perhaps blue ribbon beer into a new renaissance in a way, and perhaps blue ribbon beer is known as a a low cost light beer, and whether people were drinking it ironically or they were doing it because it was it was affordable. Yeah, you could get two twelve packs of pots Flue ribbon as opposed to a couple of beers. But then I was looking into a recent story that says that PBR maybe in danger of actually going away.

And the reason is that Miller Cores, which is the company that brews, packages and ships PBR. PBRs its own little company, but Miller Cores does all the brewing, packing and shipping for him. They're looking at possibly shutting all that down in favor of their own Miller Light brand so that they can make that the kind of flagship light beer. And that's got a lot of the PBR

folks in a tizzy. Meanwhile, a lot of those same hipsters who had previously elevated PBR are now moving towards microbreweries and these sort of craft beers, and again it gets kind of into that small business and ex burience level along those lines of healthier and maybe that's why, I don't know, maybe that's why millennials drink less. It's

a lot of calories, even even light beer. American cheese and mayo those are both things where people want something that's a little bit more real and a little bit more substantial. American cheese is very processed, mayonnaise is considered very processed. You can't get good homemade or alas and that kind of stuff, but they'd rather spend their money

on something that's a little bit more real food. That being said, even though they trend toward healthier options, they aren't necessarily trending towards loclorie because both diet coke and light yogurt have taken a hit. Yes, in the case of light yogurt, the analysis I saw is that perhaps they're tending more towards the more natural yogurts, like the Greek yogurts and stuff stuff that's viewed as being higher and things like protein and yes, so they're not so

much worried about calories as they are nutritional content. And with diet coke, you know, you've got these people who are trying to give up sodas, and diet coke was supposed to be the alternative to drinking a high sugar soda, but then the fake sugars at diet coker using we're getting a really bad wrap and Sena's unhealthy, so people weren't drinking that either, and that really hurt Coca Cola. They're diet coke sales dropped like yeah, and it's one of the things they sell a lot of his diet

coker dependent, especially especially here in Atlanta. Yes, and then when we get into other categories like real estate, that's where we see the thing about how you know, baby boomers say like, I just don't get them. I mean, at their agent would have had my starter home, I would have already been moved into a house, and millennials are like, we would rather rent longer and save up money. And then by not a starter house but a house, well, I mean, when you think about it, I bought what

would be considered a starter house. My starter house is pretty dirt and nice. But there was a while there where the housing market was real bad. If you bought a starter home that was just okay, I'm sorry, Jonathan, to touch such a sore spot for you. I'm not going to go into it. But if you bought a house that was just okay, expecting to sell it in a few years, and then that housing market crash happened, you're stuck with this house you don't like I'm very familiar,

and you can't. It's hard to get something better if you're dealing with student debt and all that. So I understand how people might wait to get the thing they want as opposed to getting something that is just a placeholder. And that kind of leads us over into the retail world as well, where we've already kind of touched on this, how millennials sort of go towards the small business the experience. They don't want some sort of homogenized, giant, faceless corporation

kind of experience. They'd rather go someplace where it's charming and you can actually get to know the name of the people who owned the place, and that you know, you might find stuff that's outside of the ordinary there. And the one in retail that is the one item over all others that I'm like, good if millennials kill it would be the diamond industry. I was thinking, you might say, the bar soap industry. No diamonds. Diamonds. So for the few people out there who may not be aware,

diamonds are actually not rare at all. They're They're plentiful, whether you're talking man made or natural. There are more than enough diamonds. However, you have essentially one company, two beers, that has a stranglehold on the world supply of diamonds, and so this company can choose when to start making some of them available for purchase, and by controlling the supply, they can help control the demand unless there's no demand.

And again, millennials are a little more frugal with their money. They're not willing to put in that a large investment, especially. I think a lot of them are also kind of savvy as to how the diamond industry works. Yeah, certainly. And you know what, here's the thing later in our notes, will get to it to Beer is aware of this, yeah, and they're putting into motion plans to try to get some of that market back. But I mean, the other thing is on millennials wants something unique. They don't want

just to solitaire on a single band. Yeah, So they are often opting for non traditional engagement and wedding rings, and so they're looking at other stones, They're looking at other designs. We both know people who have had engagement and wedding bands that are very different from the norm, including getting them tattooed on their fingers. So it's definitely something that is an indicator of a general sense. No soap,

I didn't really care about that one so much. I mean, I don't like bar soap because it tends to make my skin feel drier. Now, you know that might just be because I'm cheap and I by cheap brands. Um, but yeah, millennials think bars of soap tend to be Germany and they'd rather not share them. It's self cleaning.

Other industries in retail that are taking a hit things like home depot again because people aren't buying houses early on, so I think that one might be premature, right, No one might come around in another, you know, five to ten years department stores because again, people want the smaller shot napkins. Yes, this is one where I'm like, you know, I like my napkins. I have a little napkin holder. It's nice because people are attempted to take just one at a time, as opposed to like an entire roll

of paper towels. No, I do paper towels. Um. I have paper towels stationed in strategic spots throughout the house, and you just go from room to room, ripping off paper towels and wiping stuff down. Yeah, but between the fact that paper towels are more multi use and more absorbent, and millennials are eating out more, ordering in more so they're getting napkins delivered with their meals. They don't have to buy them. Napkins are kind of a little bit

shaken in their boots. And then when you get down to vehicles, like we said, uh, the cars thing for a while, there were a lot of articles I remember these distinctly from a few years ago, all these articles

about how millennials weren't buying cars for various reasons. Either they could not afford the car, they couldn't afford insurance for the car, they couldn't afford place to park the car, all of these different reasons, and that the auto industry as a result was going to be in big trouble because there was going to be a big drop in sales, and that we would also see a rise in different industries that were related because people still need to get around,

they just wouldn't be able to afford a car. And that also includes motorcycles, and millennials are killing the motorcycle. And we we did our episode on Harley Davidson did and one of the millennials killed the articles was about how younger people aren't really gravitating towards motorcycles very much, which you would think they would because it's technically a cheaper mode of transportation. Yeah, we still got to park the thing you do. I mean you can like park

it in your bedroom. It'll be really dirty and gross and get your carpets dirty. But they're also killing the sports and fitness industry and theory. So wait, wait, their health conscious, but they're killing sports and fitness well traditional so they tend to like more unique fitness experiences like bar classes or rock wall climb or rock wall climbing or things like that. And so they aren't going to

twenty four hour type gym's as much. They'd rather go to something that's a little bit more specialized and personalized. They're not doing things like playing golf. Let's say golf is less fitness and more just sport, right, or it may just be well, no, that's the center in me. I'm not going to say what I think golf is. But yeah, not as much interested in golf. To be fair, I don't know that many Gen xers who are really big into golf either, but that might just be my

own circle of friends. I mean, now, there are still a good number of millennials who do play golf, and you know, golf as a whole is also trying to take steps to appeal to a younger generation, and I think a lot of that also just depends upon opportunity. Yeah,

it's opportunity, it's time. And golf honestly has this real big like cloud over it of being a very exclusive thing, very classist, and millennials tend to be more Now, there are lots of introverted millennials, you know, but as a whole, they tend to like more social type activities and something that's not all about excluding other people. If they're going to go out and be with other people, they want

to be with other people. And then they're also not watching football is much they aren't ready for some football they aren't. I am I like football, honestly, couldn't care one wad Like you asked me about a specific player, I won't be able to tell you, but I enjoy watching it. But you know that's because a lot of millennials don't have cable, and cable is a traditional way to watch football and going to a game can be expensive, and as we've already made out, they don't necessarily have

the money to do it well. We then also get on to the financial side. Arial you mentioned that millennials are putting aside more money, which is interesting because there's also this kind of prevailing thought that millennials have an inherent distrust in the banking industry. They do, and a lot of millennials don't ever go to a physical location, right, like a physical bank branch. Yeah, most of them go less than once a month, if at all, but they

still have to put their money somewhere. So banks as a financial institution as a way to exchange money and less cryptocurrency gets really really popular. I don't think those are going to completely go away, however, our actual physical locations might. We might see more move towards credit unions things like that as opposed to your traditional banks. There's also the relationship between millennials and insurance, which is it's continuously part of the national conversation here in the United

States because the nature of insurance keeps changing. Yeah, I mean, they don't have a car, a house, they don't need property insurance, they don't have a family, they don't need life insurance. Health insurance is expensive, so they'd rather pay for it piecemeal and urgent care. And then the gas and oil industry is taking a hit because millennials just think the gas and oil industry is bad and they don't want to be a part of it. They don't want to work for it, they don't want to partake

in it. Now again, if you've got a car, unless you've got an electric car or I guess maybe diesel, But that's still kind of yeah, that's still it's still great. But I also see there's one other thing that millennials are trying to kill, and I what do millennials have against breasts? Um? You know, I don't know. I was gonna say, it's it's just a specific application and the application of breasts, yes, which is that they don't like restaurants.

So these would be like Hooters and Twin Peaks, which at first I thought was a restaurant where they bring your food to you on a log, but it's not. I thought that too the first time I ever saw and I remember because our old office location used to be right down the way from where a Twin Peaks restaurant was coming in and I thought it was going to be a Twin Peaks theme restaurant. I was like, that's amazing. I bet the coffee will be amazing, and sold the excited and then I was very, very sad.

But I mean as a whole, that's not the experience that millennials want to pay their money for. For one thing, these places are often also associated with at best average food, Like the food itself is obviously not trying to be the pole for these establishments. Also, according to your notes, the millennials seem to be searching less frequently for breast related terms on adult sites. Yes, so, like I said,

mainly one application, but I don't know why. I guess I guess we could say that millennials are are savvy and that they will rarely fall into a booby trap. I try not to actually laugh, but I'm actually laughing.

That was a terrible joke and I am ashamed of it, and I won't be surprised if our editor edited out anyhow So, now we've kind of gone through some of the biggest industries, or at least the most publicly facing industries that are kind of getting hit by millennials, the ones that are frequently cited in being quote unquote killed. And we'll talk a little bit about what these companies are doing to try to adapt and try to overcome their inevitable death after we take a moment to thank

our sponsors. Now, one of the things arial that you've you've mentioned a couple of times now is that millennials as a group tend to value experiences over just physical products. That if the experience of purchasing something or going to have a meal, if that is a positive, that's more attractive to this. So I assume that means that there are more businesses that are starting to pick up on

that and try to adjust to cater to that. They are they're also trying to cater to the fact that seven out of ten millennials have a fear of missing out. So if you can create the sense that this experience is a not to be missed one, and if you can somehow limit access to it just a little bit so that there is the possibility that if you don't act, you will never have that experience, you drive people to it. Yes, it's a little bit of a mind game, but you

know it's not a bad thing. That's again how our markets evolve and we get new products and things like that, and entirely new businesses as well, not just products, but we can create opportunities. So if people see that there's an opportunity they can leverage based upon these behaviors, then really it's a pivot. You know, it's not so much that millennials killed X, it's that X needs to evolve

into why and then it's gonna take off like gang bus. Yes, for instance, in the food industry, we've had businesses pop up like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh or sun Basket, any of these places where you can go and pack your menu online. You don't have to waste the time in the grocery store, which is hurting grocery stores. And then even if taking the time to cook your meal,

you've cut your prep time down exponentially. So we're having food prep and food delivery services are coming into play, as well as Uber Eats, which instead of going out to McDonald's, you're getting actual quality, unique restaurant food brought to you. Yeah, and again, I'm not a millennial. I'm too old for that. But I use a food service

similar to this. It's not one where I do the preparation but it is one where the meals are made fresh and they are made within certain caloric limits, and so that way I can get I know, I'm getting a good nutritional meal, but it's not going over my calorie limits. Yeah, but fast food is also trying to keep up with things like Uber Eats and door Dash and such by giving us healthier options and kind of

more of a cafe feel. If you look around, you'll probably see a lot of these fast food joints around you getting all of these big updates, so you've got a more pleasant experience if you do sit and eat

in and you've got some healthier options for you. I'm also seeing some new models of fast food like Blaze, the do it yourself pizza place, which is still a pretty it's a fast food service, but it's one that kind of markets itself as you get fresh ingredients, the pizzas prepared right in front of you, and then within like five minutes of you're ordering it, you've got it and you're ready to go. Yeah. Beyond that, things like what we're talking about, how cheese and Mayo were kind

of getting a bum wrap. They're just having to look at what they're putting out and be more creative with it. So like we just got Mayo Catchup, which is not a creative name, but it's that nice combination of mayonnaise and ketchup that you usually do to dip your fries in. Now it's pretty mixed for you, which saves time. I'm so disturbed. And then you know, grocery stores are having

to compete. I think Amazon recently bought Whole Foods and they've been talk about like people as grocery stores where you say the things you want and you pick up your basket and you write, or you just walk in and you literally just put the stuff in your basket and when you walk out, the whole system scans everything and you just get charged for whatever it was you bought. Yeah, and then you know. I think it's important to mention

that companies are also focusing on the social aspect. So Newman's own is a big brand, YEP, and they're known for their philanthropic efforts. But a lot of young people didn't know that, Like they give away all of their profits charities, and a lot of young people don't know that a lot of people don't know who Paul Newman is. Right, he passed away several years ago. Yeah, and so they're trying to focus less on Paul Newman, the actor and

more on the philanthropy. They're putting it out more front and focused because that will make more millennials want to buy it. And we talked a little bit about how millennials are putting more money aside in order to buy a home later in life, not buying it so early. They're also getting into a little, you know a few of the creative and sometimes unsustainable approaches to home ownership, like getting an RV and traveling around and you know,

kind of having an almost nomadic lifestyle. It's an alternative to a starter home if you're looking for a good paying job and you don't know where you're going to land, and you have someplace where you can hook things up. Well, look, my folks own r V. Yeah, And when you go to these r V parks, when I visit them and there are ving and I'm at an r V park, there are people who do just live that lifestyle because it's cheap torent a plot, you know, and that usually

comes with your utilities included. And if you buy an RV, sometimes your payments can be as low as like one hundred or two hundred dollars a month, which you know you're going to have maintenance, but it's still less expensive than renting an apartment in like Atlanta or owning a home and having to fix everything yourself. I also know that the tiny house movement is still something that people are interested in. I think I would go crazy within

a week. I mean again, if you're more into experiences than stuff, Yeah, I like the experience of not knocking my head while I'm trying to get into the bed, which is fun because where we're recording may actually had a tiny house event. And you mentioned that de Beers was looking at some ways of marketing diamonds to try and attract millennials, who have so far been fairly resistant to the diamond industry. They have been. They're trying to show that they're trying to make the world better place.

How I don't know, especially considering the incredibly problematic history of the diamond industry and and current practices even and they're trying to make diamonds seem more unique. Love has

many facets, you know, unique settings. They're trying to give a digital marketplace that is easier to understand and quicker to do, where you can customize your rings, more stuff that shows individuality and authenticity, which you can certainly do with the diamond and jewelry if the underlying problem of how the diamond business works doesn't bother you, but it totally should. Moving on to transportation, so I mentioned ridesharing services.

Those have obviously been doing quite well over the past several years. But like we said, the car industy treas not as in in such dire straits as was first predicted just a few years ago. No, no, because as millennials get older, as they do buy their homes and they do have families now. Interesting thing to note, even though millennials are getting married later and they're buying homes later,

doesn't necessarily mean that they're having children later. But that being said, as they do get all these things and all these pieces of their life fall into place, if that's what they're trying to achieve, then they find out, well, maybe my public transportation is not so great here, Maybe I don't want to have to wait for an uber, Maybe I do want my own car. And so we've seen a little bit of an uptaking cars. Although big surprise to me it's largely in like basic models and

then SUVs and trucks. I would have thought that electric cars would be booming, but then electric cars tend to have a pretty expensive upfront costs, like like over the long term, you could argue that they could perhaps be more economical, but they didn't have a pretty high sticker price when you're first buying them. Yeah, like Tesla those cars not. No, I went and priced one recently just

for the funzies of it. And also like along with the rideshare services and the actual slight uptick in car purchases among millennials, we've also seen the rise of sort of urban transportation solutions, like all the different scooter companies like Bird, which I mean you can't go anywhere in Atlanta now without seeing them everywhere. No, and and people just like they forget common courtesy like don't leave it.

Don't leave it in the middle of the sidewalk. Put it on the side of the sidewalks so we can still see it. You're not hiding it behind a blush. But also bicycles. Bicycles do the same thing. In New York, you can rent a bicycle and take it from one place to another. And then they have people who they've got like incentives who can ride the most bike miles to bring their bikes back to a drop off or pick up location. And then motorcycles are trying to get

back in the game. One of the reasons motorcycles was suffering is that they are not a very easy entry sort of a vehicle. You have to get a different license for it, you have to take classes for it, and they're pretty expensive compared to renting a bird scooter. So they're trying to make low cost, easy to pick up models. So I think we can kind of some up what has been going on here, and that's that

it's not that millennials are killing industries necessarily. They may be changing some of you and for others, it's entirely all about them putting money aside until they can afford the things that they were otherwise putting off. So it's not so much they're killing, it's that they're biding their time. They're biding their time and then they'll pounce. And then these companies also need to bide their time or just really try to make their product more of an experience, yeah,

and trying to make sure it's accessible. It is tough for me to lay any burden really on that generation. If you're talking about a generation that had experienced unprecedented levels of college tuition, if they were going after that college education, the student loans are no joke. And to get out of college and you're immediately in massive amounts of debt and you have that hanging over you. I don't think most people would think, how can I add

to the debt that's already there? Yeah, Like I know for myself, I saw people who had acquired debt going, I'll be able to pay this off, and then something happened the recession, and then they couldn't and all the trouble that brought. And I'm like, I don't want to go into debt in the first place. YEA, as much as humanly possible. So no, I certainly can't blame them.

And to be completely fair, they will blame gen Z for killing industries, which is the next generation Generation C and it will pass along, I'm sure from grandfather to father to son, grandmother to mother to granddaughter. Get a skip daughter your granddaughter. Your timeline is weird. I assume at some point we invented a DeLorean that can travel all through time, from aunt to cousin to nephew. Okay, you know what. That's enough. We're gonna wrap this up.

So guys, if you have any suggestions or you have any comments, maybe you have your own point of view of the whole millennials killed the blank meme. I'd love to hear them and I went to You can send us a message at feedback at the Brink podcast dot Show and we will be happy to look it over. We look forward to seeing that. And remember you can just go to the Brink Podcast dot Show. That's our website where you can learn all about us and the site. You can also look back on the previous episodes and

catch up on ones that you might have missed. We look forward to hearing from you. And I've been Jonathan Strickland and I've been aerial casting. I gotta go and get killed by some millennials. Get off my lawn s s h Listen and subscribe at Apple Podcasts or on the I heart Radio app, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Listen and follow on the I heart radio app, or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts