May 20, 2015
Are Millennials the only ones shunning the drive-thru?
My days pulling up to a fast food chain’s drive-through to purchase burgers and fries are over, for all practical purposes. Although I fall solidly in the Boomer camp, our three resident Millennials have asked for years that we bypass McD’s, BK, etc. to instead drive to Chipotle Grill, Panera Bread or a number of local casual dining spots.
The result has been my out-of-home dining habits have changed over time. I know I can’t be alone in this, which is why I find articles that focus on the challenges fast feeders face attracting Millennials as not being entirely on point. Children influence their parents’ consumption habits just as the reverse is true.
Now, there’s no doubt that younger consumers on the whole are more adventurous in their eating habits than their parents were at the same age. There’s plenty of evidence both statistical and anecdotal that points to that.
Source: Panera Facebook page
New Technomic research, for example, projects fast causal restaurant sales are expected to grow from the $39 billion posted last year to $62 billion in 2019. Millennials, Darren Tristano, executive vice president at Technomic, told the Chicago Tribune, want higher quality food, albeit at affordable prices. Affordable these days ranges between $9 and $13 per check.
Millennials’ influence on their parents is no minor consideration. According to numerous reports, many 18 to 34-year-olds are still reliant on their parents because of the challenges they have faced finding gainful employment and paying down college debt. A survey conducted by Bank of America and USA Today found 19 percent are still living at home and not paying rent or expenses.
Discussion Questions
Which generation — Boomers or Millennials — do you think has the greater influence on the purchasing habits of the other? How should restaurants and retailers go about managing the needs and expectations of the current generation with money (Boomers) and those (Millennials) that will determine the future success of their businesses?
Poll
BrainTrust
Jeff Hall
President, Second To None
Verlin Youd
SVP Americas, Ariadne
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Each generation influences the other. Does it really matter which has the most influence? Single adults have purchase habits which change as children enter their lives, which continue to evolve as children grow older and then leave home. Unless a retailer designs to target a specific demographic group it neglects a group at its own peril. Boomers and Millennials don’t have to be pitted against each other.
Who, I mean WHO, cares what Millennials think! Drive-thru is not a purchase habit, it is a way to operate efficiently to get food and move to another location. Smart food retailers will stick with the MONEY, and most Millennials do not have as much expendable income as Boomers. Drive-thru for my family is getting food when on the road or to haul home. None of my Millennial kids influence me enough to go sit inside a fast food joint and listen to the noise and stand and wait for food.
Boomers still OWN the physical world. Millennials are just neck benders locked into their mobile devices and wanting to own the internet. Get to the Generation X audience. Millennials are off-spotlight very soon and will be hiding in the Boomers’ basements.
I’m not certain that one generation has influence over the other as to purchasing habits. The bigger picture is the seismic shift we’re witnessing in both shopping and dining habits. Consumers of every age desire, and are willing to pay for, healthier, fresh and non-processed meals, coupled with the greater choice now available. In retail the qualities of authentic, locally-sourced, American-made, artisanal, hand-crafted, socially-conscious brands and the like continue to grow in appeal. Such shifting preferences aren’t being driven by one generation influencing the next, but rather an evolution in what is important to consumers regardless of age.
“Affordable these days ranges between $9 and $13 per check.”
To a great extent, I think that is the operable phrase. Have preferences in food types shifted? Has awareness of health implications grown? Have QSRs been maligned to the point of becoming a social anathema among the more affluent Millenials?
That answer to all of the above is, of course, “Sure!”
But not many of today’s Boomers could consider $9 to $13 “affordable” in our day — inflation accounted for. Heck, $10 was a DATE! And finding the fifty cents for gas or a hamburger in between school and work (or vice versa) was a daily challenge.
Forgive me for going all ” … walked ten miles to school, uphill both ways!” on the readers here. But this crop of twenty-thirty somethings we have dubbed the “Millennials” certainly ranks as having the most disposable income of any such group in our history. And much of that is our (Boomers’) doing. We let them stay on our dime because we are benevolent and we can. But I’m really not sure we are doing them any favors.
As a Boomer I’ve been eating at Chipotle every day for the past eight years. I frequently eat by myself or with one other person if they want to meet with me.
I see Millennials, at my office and at Chipotle, eating as a group — the bigger the better.
Isn’t the relevant question not “who influences” but “who is buying?” In my world it is the Boomers and older Generation Xers who are increasingly footing the bill for their young adult Millennial eaters. Follow the money, keep your eye on whose credit card is actually paying the bill in your establishment and try to keep them happy and appreciated, is my advice to restaurant managers.
Well right now it’s the young folks dictating the more advanced concepts that us boomers like to visit, get excited and talk about. Although, “us” being boomers, we’re still going to go wherever the heck we want to go, old or new, Millennials or no. There’s no changing that!
There are clearly other factors at play as well, like perceived healthier products, better environments, expendable income, etc., etc. But overall, throughout the centuries, you can count on the young folks to bring about change. And right now, in terms of retail at all levels, hallelujah to that.
While generations do influence the markets, in the end, the restaurants and retailers have to adapt to the customers they target. Watch your demographics. Listen to your customers. Watch the “big data” analytics that spot trends. Just be sure those trends are relevant to your specific business.
Find the common ground between these groups (and don’t focus on the noise related to differences that are age related).
We all have to eat and saving time and money are desired, so let’s drill down.
Healthy eating for Millennials includes being conscious of how the food was produced. Healthy eating for boomers relates to lowering BMI (body mass index) to help in a variety of chronic problems. Millennials are afraid they will inherit the health care costs related to unhealthy lifestyles, boomers can’t trust Millennials to fund the system. Common Ground!
Campaign idea: Instead of “Tastes Great/Less Filling” how about: “Weight’s Great/Less Killing”
But why come up with ideas when your customers can do it for you?
Campaign idea: Hold a contest that involves Father/Son, Mother/Daughter, etc. pairs engaged in some type of survival scenario (not an expensive island stay, how about just attending a Red Sox game wearing a Yankees Hat?) Interview them after the event and pluck the nuggets.
Millennials have a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)—Boomers have bucket lists. Perhaps you could team Boomers and Millennials on dreams they share.
I’ve heard that Millennials are more like the WWII generation regarding money as in more conservative with respect to risk taking and a desire to save. Maybe they stay home because they think they have a less potential moving up the career ladder so they care about money (but as kids, they still want to live, without going into debt). Boomers might be more conservative as they age. Common Ground.
This is a great topic for ethnographic research—spend the money and do the research! Think Venn Diagram. One circle represents your millennials, the other boomers, and the third is your business. The goal—find the overlap of the three, recruit and then drill down.
A true question for the ages, literally! (Sorry, just couldn’t resist.)
Purely anecdotal, however, chez Youd, the older Xers still have sway over the Millennials while allowing said Millennials the opportunity to influence location of purchase. Occasionally a Millennial will get the full decision based on good behavior and/or grades.
On a more serious note, with the trend of not eating as a family continuing, such dining decisions will indeed fall to all groups as parent(s) may make one choice, child another, and grandparents still another.
Re: I’ve heard that Millennials are more like the WWII generation regarding money as in more conservative with respect to risk taking and a desire to save.
In the city, I wonder about this. Along the lines of the comment below, about $9-$13 not being thought of as an affordable cost for lunch “back in the day,” Millennials are at the forefront of higher cost based consumption: (1) taxi equivalent rides via services such as Uber rather than walking or using public transit; and (2) avid consumption of meals from food trucks, when the price for a complete meal from urban food trucks seems to range from $10 to $15.
I guess it is more about the experience and experience-centric consumption, aka “affordable luxuries.” But I don’t think they are good examples of “saving money.”