We Have to Go Shopping
Few women have a permanent excuse to leave work early or skip out on family chores so they can check out the latest at Bloomingdale’s or take a trip to T.J. Maxx. But we two authors do have one, because it’s our job to go shopping—or at least part of it. Admittedly the smallest part, but it’s still a pretty sweet way to earn a living. It definitely makes us the envy of our friends—who forget the fact that we actually spend a lot more time interviewing shoppers and retailers, reading research, and analyzing data than we do visiting malls.
Still, there’s no denying that we have spent an enormous amount of time in stores, on retail websites, and at hundreds of malls across the country. In the process, we’ve acquired national reputations as consumer experts—and some pretty nice shoes too.
Research and reporting for our day jobs—such as Kit’s consulting work for businesses including General Electric, Del Monte, and Nokia, and Jayne’s coverage of issues ranging from the demise and comeback of department stores to declining auto sales to shopaholism—have given us an impressive platform on which to build this book.
We’ve written Gen BuY in a light and lively style, but don’t let the fun fool you: our foundation is rock-solid research. We’re releasing our proprietary research for the first time in these pages.
Our data and our sources—many of whom are named in the Acknowledgments—include:
- Hundreds of one-on-one interviews with young people aged eight to twenty-nine
- Eleven focus groups representing the range of Gen Y ages in ten U.S. cities—Atlanta; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Westerly, Rhode Island; San Francisco; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; Coral Springs, Florida; Wheeling, West Virginia; Chicago; and Columbia, Maryland
- More than two hundred mall and shopping venue visits in over three dozen cities
- A national online survey of more than two thousand shop-pers, including a thousand Gen Yers and respondents from every U.S. state
- Scores of interviews with experts
- Insights from the team of young sleuths we’ve sent out to connect with other Gen Yers
- Review and analysis of hundreds of popular and academic articles, surveys, and studies
But why shopping? Well, for starters, shopping is our national collective pastime. In surveys of favorite leisure activities, shop-ping comes in first or second for nearly every demographic group in the United States. Consumer spending is a central force in the economic health of our nation. Never has this been clearer than it was in the latter part of 2008 when spending stalled and contributed to a recession of dramatic proportions. Though consumers are still shopping, they’re even more particular about what they buy, and retailers are reminded of the importance of meeting consumer needs.
What we buy and have is one of the primary ways that we communicate who we are to others in today’s speedy and more visual society (which also makes shopping a juicy source of celebrity—and community—gossip). It’s a way to explore roles, connect with others, and socialize. Everything from the way we bling, to where we shop, to what we don’t buy is a way to define ourselves. Similarly, what a generation buys and how it shops offers us deep insights into that group of people and, by comparison or contrast, a way for all of us to see ourselves more clearly.
Shopping is pervasive. Internationally, 73 percent of people say they shop recreationally, and, believe it or not, that figure is slightly lower in the United States—68 percent.1 And though we may think we’ve just recently become a nation of shoppers, the truth is that shopping is, and always has been, an important part of every culture from the time that cultures first began. Be it selecting a particular brand of soda from a vending machine, picking up a pair of flip-flops while hanging out at the mall, planning and purchasing a new car or even electing a candidate to office—we all make brand and product selections every day.
From eighteen-year-old Robert’s delight with a brand of sneakers he feels are totally him to twenty-seven-year-old Anna’s angst at her inability to resist buying new clothes, shopping and buying are hugely emotional and deeply psychological. Through shopping and buying, we can see clearly into the minds, hearts, and lives of individuals, cultures, and generations. After all, pos-sessions have the ability to hold such great meaning that even mummies are found buried with favorite and symbolic objects.
The tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings that are the focus of this book are upstaging baby boomers, who are often their parents, at the mall. For example, the average teen visits the mall four times a month and stays over ninety minutes per visit (nearly one full trip and twenty minutes longer than the average shopper). In January 2009, when most retailers were posting double-digit sales declines, several retailers that cater to teens outperformed even Wal-Mart.
U.S. households with at least one member of Gen Y represent the third largest buying group in this country. These households account for 37 percent of total dollars spent, 31 percent of total trips, and 15 percent more dollars spent than the average household.2 Gen Yers are enthusiastic shoppers—and there are more of them than any other generation. At nearly eighty-four million, they are the largest segment of the U.S. population (boomers account for seventy-eight million). Today over 26 percent of American adults are Gen Yers.3 The most conservative estimates of Gen Y spending exceed $200 billion a year, and this generation’s spending will top $10 trillion in its lifetime.
Not only are they big spenders themselves, but they hold great sway over what their mothers and fathers buy. And as the most powerful trendsetters in our increasingly youth- and technology-oriented society, their influence is pervasive. In other words, the economic impact of Gen Yers extends well beyond their own financial means—they’re influencing every generation, whether others realize it or not.
While few baby boomers could ever have imagined their parents choosing a car or clothes that their kids steered them to (case in point: the leisure suits kids weren’t able to stop their parents from buying!), Gen Y is influencing at least half of auto purchases and 90 percent of the apparel buys in their homes, according to 2007 research conducted for the digital marketing agency Resource Interactive.5 At last, a partial explanation for all the skinny, low-cut jeans on not-so-skinny midlife moms.
So why is shopping so central for our well-educated, highly connected society, and especially its youth? Just as it is for their parents—but even more so—shopping serves as a mental vacation, a social activity, and a conversation starter for Gen Y. And the opportunities for this sort of escape abound as shopping centers and malls are ever more integrated into their lives. Against that backdrop, all those ‘‘things’’ young people acquire on their shopping jaunts become the currency of their conversation and a way to tell others who they are.
Despite (or perhaps because of) all of those reasons, it bears noting here that our book is intended to be neither a celebration nor a condemnation of consumerism, but rather a deep dive into the motivations and influences of this powerful generation of consumers. Along with helping retailers and other marketers understand—and sell to—Gen Y, we think this book will also help everyone understand why they buy and how to be better shoppers.
