One of the greatest pleasures of opening a nice, traditional, aged wine is the opening of the cork. This is your opportunity to create tension, show your expertise and experience, and perhaps hit someone you dislike in the eye “by accident”. Today’s generation doesn’t have the time or the patience to open a cork, so they opt for wines with screw-off tops that don’t require any special action to open.
Like most companies, winemakers are forced to cater to today’s more comfort-seeking generations if they want to thrive. There’s no longer an appreciation for tradition, and you can even say millennials, especially generation Z, actively distance themselves from anything that is associated with tradition. It’s also a lot easier nowadays to buy wine online, so the competition is much stiffer than ever before.
Nobody Buys Cable Anymore
Everyone knows that everything from the mainstream media to regular TV channels are going through a slow death process. What’s the point of having to be forced through countless commercial breaks and a very limited set of shows and films when you can just watch everything online? Most millennials are paying a very small monthly amount to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and the new Disney+. Even all of these combined sometimes cost less than just one cable provider.
There’s absolutely no reason today to keep yourself stuck on a cable network that costs more, only works locally, and is harder to get disconnected from. Instead, millennials are opting for having streaming services on the go, from either their phones or computers. The benefits are endless, from not having commercial breaks to being able to download films and TV shows for later offline viewing, anytime and anywhere.
Millennials Hate Mailboxes
One of the biggest questions that still perplex millennials to this very day is, what’s the point of having a mailbox when you can just send an email? Mailboxes present a few problems for today’s millennials. First, you have to actually go outside and manually check your mailbox, which is a hassle. Second, these things take time to arrive, and millennials don’t like it when things take time. Thirdly, millennials often move places, which makes it a huge issue when they have to constantly update all of their providers.
It seems that in the next few years, physical mail is going to go as close to extinct as it can possibly get. Many companies today are forced to allow their customers to use emails and digital papers when corresponding with them. There’s a good chance that in a few decades, mailboxes will be something that you see in a museum, rather than in the front of a lawn.
Millennials Aren’t Into Clothing Brands Anymore
With the rise of online retail and today’s Instagram culture, traditional brands such as Prada, Vogue, Channel, Boss and Gucci are becoming shells of their former selves. Once these were considered the best pieces of clothing, jewelry and fragrances that money can buy. Nowadays, anyone can start their own fashion line and sell it online without even owning their own stock.
Today’s millennials and especially generation Z have absolutely no allegiance to traditional brands. Instead, they are attracted to new and exciting brands, and often make purchases due to great prices and awesome marketing rather than brand recognition. Today’s brands are also a lot more focused on the influencers that promote them rather than the brand itself.
Home Ownership Is Practically Gone
One of the happiest and life-changing moments for parents and great-grandparents was the first time they became official homeowners. This used to be considered a staple of the American dream, along with a steady job, two kids, a healthy 401(k), and a couple of cars to boot. Nowadays, young people spend those initial $120,000 on getting into college, rather than getting a mortgage and owning their own homes.
One of the most important reasons for today’s low homeownership is the rising real-estate prices all across the world. Another big consideration is today’s work mobility. It’s often the case that a millennial will switch jobs, sometimes even career paths, more than two or three times every decade. Having a home would greatly limit that ability. Finally, there’s the issue of student debt. With student debts being the highest they’ve ever been, there’s no way for a modern millennial to afford a home.