LilBob

The Future of U.S. Consumer Spending: It's a Generational Thing

I agree with you wholeheartedly that one needs to examine one's primary demographic group and aim advertising and product lines accordingly, but I question your list of businesses as you appear to have half of the list spot on and the other half dead wrong.

4 of the 8 businesses you mention are purveyors of goods and or services that are either of poor quality, or in outrageously competitive markets. Aeropostale doesn't have a chance in an age when more consumers are looking for the "Made in America" tag and quality of products is a growing issue. Chipotle Mexican Grill-that's just a big loser right there, the food in their stores is just plain awful (and I do know food, I was a prep cook in some pretty nice restaurants during my college years). Boston Beer Company-a lot of people do like Sam Addams but there's tremendous competition in Micro-Brews and Sam Addams has lost some of it's microbrew credibility by becoming too omnipresent. Pac Sun-they had stores in the malls near where I live, both of those stores are closed now. The items they carried were very highly priced, and suited to the fashion sense of a suburbanite hip-hop fan with significantly less than average intelligence.

After trashing half of your list I'll do a mitzvah by naming a sector to watch: craft goods suppliers. Gen-Y-for some strange reason I don't really understand-seems to be full of young people who love to do crafts: knitting, scrap-booking, watercolors, etc. Stores like Michael's and Joann Fabrics are likely to enjoy growing sales as the buying power of Gen-Y increases.