When people from our previous generation wanted to go on vacation, the first thing they did was look for the best flight and hotel package they could find. It seems that today’s generation is much less fond of the classic vacation package, which is why hotels’ profits are suffering. Recent services, such as the popular Airbnb, have made vacation apartment renting a much more popular and appealing option, due to the lower prices and more authentic experience.
Hotels, which are more traditional forms of vacationing, are now mostly geared towards families and business trips. Even frugal travelers are starting to ditch cheaper hotels, such as the Holiday Inn. What’s the point of paying extra for house cleaning and other services when you can just rent a small apartment for a few days for a much cheaper price?
Organic Foods Are Hurting Processed Food Sales
Many millennials won’t even buy food that doesn’t have the word “organic” on it. This is partly because of their ethical beliefs, where something like organic meat usually means the animal was treated better, and partly due to health fads. This is a great excuse for companies to seriously jack up their food prices, as organic products often cost a lot more than regular ones.
Companies that aren’t willing to cater to today’s green, vegan, organic (insert your healthy words of choice here) demands from millennials, are seeing their sales drop. This is due to both the higher demand for such foods, as well as much stiffer competition from online retailers who will just ship food straight to your door.
Millennials Prefer to Pay For Online Courses
Why go to a small class thirty minutes away from your house when you can learn from the comfort of your home or phone, usually for cheaper prices? A massive shift in recent years has been a steady rise in the E-Learning space, where entire online universities are being set up that teach you everything you’ll ever need to know, both personally and professionally, for a fraction of the price.
Many millennials are also using YouTube as their source of information. You can find everything on the platform, from video essays that break down philosophical and historical topics, up to certain professors uploading their full courses online for free. Information is certainly becoming extremely accessible in today’s day and age.
They’re Driving Prices Down
An interesting study recently found that millennials pay much less attention and respect to a brand’s name, reputation or product quality. The main decision that drives a millennial to purchase a product from one brand over another almost always prices. Most millennials report that they would happily switch brands if they find an alternative that is 30% cheaper.
It’s much less common nowadays to see a crazy stampede running into the mall on these kinds of occasions; what you’re much more likely to find is millions and millions of people making frenzied purchases online for the cheapest prices.
Going to Supermarkets and Buying Groceries
One of the most popular activities for young families is going to the supermarket together and “hunting” for various foods for the week. This activity has obviously declined considerably in the last few decades, largely due to millennials refusing to start families, or leave their homes, for that matter. Nowadays, you can just open an app and get everything you need delivered to your home. In fact, Amazon is actively pursuing a future where consumable products are automatically purchased, delivered and replaced in your fridge the moment they run out.
With the ease of ordering food online and getting it straight to your door, it's hardly a surprise that you almost never see millennials at supermarkets. Another reason for the decline in offline retail sales is the inability to compare prices. Why go through the effort of purchasing something in a retail store, when you can find the same item for a cheaper price using your phone in mere seconds?