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In Reply to: RE: An article from a millenial about the future of many B&M posted by RGA on June 08, 2017 at 17:30:35
As a Canadian I cant relate much to this. I've only seen Applebees in movies and before this thread I had never heard of Ruby Tuesday. Amazon.ca? the price increase is crazy. I can get it cheaper at most local small chain B&M stores most of the time. Fancy cocktails? Only place I could get them until the last few years was at "hip" clubs and bars.
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For us Canadians just substitute Applebees for "The Pantry" and Ruby Tuesday for White Spot or the Swiss Chalet. The sorts of Restaurants that after you drop $20 you think to yourself - man I just should have had a Big Mac combo it would probably be just as bad but for 1/3 the price.
I am not a big drinker so I would not know about the cocktails. Here in Hong Kong you will pay $10US ($13 Cad) for one in the party districts.
The main thing is buying power is vastly lower for millenials than boomers = back in the boomer era everything was relatively cheap from homes to education and jobs and even qualifications for jobs were minimal requiring only high school educations that for the same job today require 4+ year degrees.
So the notion they are more choosy about quality is only half true - they have to be choosy about quality because they only get one crack at it. They can't afford to buy a pair of jeans say that rip in 6 months. Back in the old days - meh it breaks you buy another one no big deal. But when your clothing budget for the years is $100 you have to make it count. Same for Applebees and the Pantry. If you have the $20 to eat middling crappy food then it doesn't bother you. But if you only have enough money to take yourself, wife and kids out for one restaurant meal every two months you damn well want that meal to be good.
The reasons these companies are going out of business is because there aren't enough people with enough disposable income to spend the money. The top 1% isn't going to eat at mediocre restaurants they are eating $80 a plate meals at Michelin star restaurants. The middle class goes and so do all the middle class targeted retailers. Heck in my town in Canada there are three dollar stores and a Value Village and a Walmart. I saw the same sort of thing on my vacation to Vegas. High end retailers and very low end retailers and the middle sort of getting killed unless it's somewhat famous like the Cheesecake Factory Hash-a-go-go but even these are middling quality with big portions in the hopes you don't notice that you are receiving slop.
We'll see what these Millenials do when they are 40-50years old. And it will be interesting to see which audio companies will manage to sell to a market of people who have no money. The more money they have to put out for food, medical, insurance will mean less money to spend on high end speakers and amps.
"The reasons these companies are going out of business is because there aren't enough people with enough disposable income to spend the money"That's actually not true. Retail sales in the US is growing 3-3.5% a year. If what you said was true then the amount being spent would be lower year to year.
Try some mid priced items if you are having trouble. You might need to give up being "fashion forward" but that's what the extra money gets you.
Milennials are getting squeezed for housing as well as education - so is everyone else. Given communication networks and jobs, there is no need to live in the most expensive cities (which have never really been affordable for most people, just even less now). There are lots of options at least in the US (I know in Hong Kong there might not be).
We live in a sea of low price/low quality goods these days - you can and should seek out the middle priced goods.
But ... B&M shakeout is going on - it's not because the money isn't being spent - it is - it's just mid priced department stores, and mall stores (always low margin) are getting nailed because their lunches are being eaten by Amazon.
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"We have met the enemy and he is us" - Pogo
Edits: 06/25/17 06/25/17
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