12 Things Millennials Aren't Buying

From diamonds to Big Macs, young people are not buying a lot of things.

Millennials aren't buying things, and the media is ON IT.

Classics of the things-millennials-aren't-buying genre are accompanied a few brute demographic facts — millennials are young and don't have a lot of money — and if you're lucky, you'll get a generous hit of the pop psychology that is the specialty of marketing executives who explain the unexplainable.

Here are a few of the things that millennials aren't buying, and why.

1. Fabric Softener

Why?

"Shailesh Jejurikar, P&G’s head of global fabric care, told analysts recently that most millennials 'don’t know what the product is for.'"

2. Homes

Why?

"They’ve merely hit the pause button on parenthood and mortgages. For the supermobile, one might say, your 30s are the new 20s."

"Millennials who grow up in poor neighborhoods are less likely to move, less likely to go to college, and even if they go to college, they are less likely to leave their zip code...They are stuck."

3. Diamonds

Why aren't millennials buying diamonds? https://t.co/yMmkzFUFBb

Why?

"Young consumers increasingly shun the taint of conflict and exploitation."

4. Life Insurance

Why?

"The majority of millennials, like Kronick, also said life insurance was too expensive and they had other financial priorities that far outweigh buying it."

5. Lottery tickets

Why?

“We know that this young adult demographic has changed and that the kinds of games we’re offering — the big lotto games — are not necessarily as appealing to today’s younger adults."

6. Bars of soap

Why?

"Millennials believe bar soaps are covered in germs after they are used."

7. Cereal

Why?


Almost 40% of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.


8. Golf

Why?


"It's slow, takes a long time to play; it's expensive. As a sport it doesn't reflect the kind of values millennials like — diversity, inclusion. Golf tends to not be those things."

9. Mass-Market American Beer

Why?

"I think that there's a move towards innovation, flavor, variety, and all of those spell craft."

10. Cable

Why?


"You look at the demographic change in behavior and some of that is situational. People don't have houses, don't have big screen TVs, don't have money."

11. Big Macs

Why?

Only one in five millennials has ever tried a Big Mac, according to a memo from a franchise owner, obtained by the Wall Street Journal last year. The Big Mac, the memo said, “has gotten less relevant.”

12. Stocks

Why?

"When we asked millennials why they don't invest, the most popular response, chosen by 46%, was that they don't have the money."


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