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Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1980, grew up with MTV and empty houses, earning them the name “latchkey kids.” The first generation who logged onto AOL Instant Messenger and played video games while still enjoying the freedom that came before helicopter parents took over is fascinating. But as a small generation that falls between baby boomers and millennials, they’re often overlooked. When it comes to their spending power, however, Gen X is small but mighty. According to a new report from ICSC, a trade association for retail real estate, Gen X may have more spending power than brands realize. While Gen X only makes up around 19% of the U.S. population, the demographic is responsible for 31% of online and in-person spending, the report finds. Not only do Gen Xers buy more in stores than baby boomers, millennials, and Gen Z across categories (luxury, fitness, and total retail costs), they’re also driving spending on dining out. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Per the report, Gen X is responsible for nearly one-third of all restaurant spending. Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, said in a press release that Gen X is “the powerhouse driving todays retail economy, spending more per shopper than all other generations.” Outsized spending impact in five states According to the report, Gen Xers are such powerful spenders that their mere presence in locations across the United States actually has a major impact on the market in that area. More than one-third of the generation’s population lives in just five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, and their spending is impactful. It’s especially evident in Florida cities like Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, as well as Houston, Texas, and more. We know that younger shoppers tend to be deeply loyal to the brands they love. But Gen X is exceptionally set in their ways, too. No big surprise. I mean, have you ever met a Gen Xer? You can’t convince them to love something they hate and vice-versa. That’s likely why 81% of latchkey kids say they are loyal to the brands they trustand they probably always will be. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); “Gen X is pragmatic, loyal to brands they trust, and influential decision-makers for themselves, their children, and their parents, McGee says. For retailers, there is no bigger near-term growth opportunity than winning the loyalty and the dollars of Gen X. Gen X isn’t just spending more than other generations. They’re also plugged in online, as they are massively tech-savvy, using online tools like social media regularly. According to the report, 92% of the generation is on social media daily. Still, brands aren’t marketing to them. Only 5% of brand influencing spending targets Gen X, which experts say is a huge mistake. “Theyve got wealth . . . They may be looking to start to make that semi-retirement-type transition,” Ryan Marshall, president and CEO of PulteGroup, a homebuilder, says in the report, “but they still consider themselves to be very young and active.” Those factors definitely seem to promote spending. But soon, that may be especially true of Gen X, as a major transfer of wealth is about to take place. Around one in three Gen Xers expect to receive an inheritance, which could come out to around $308 billion annually in spending. While Gen X’s lingo may be lowkey dated, their currency still works. Brands may be focused on appealing to on-trend millennials and Gen Zers, but they’d be wise not to write off the MTV kids just yet.
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E-Commerce
I have never had any interest in getting a hardware wallet like the new Ledger Nano Gen 5. But talking with Susan Karethe designer of the original Apple Macintosh icons and an endless torrent wonderful pixel artmade me realize I need one. “The idea that an individual can really control their own assets without a government or anything political coming between you and your assets. I like that,” she tells me. The Ledger Nano is a 0.3-inch-thick credit card-sized block that keeps your digital assets secure by storing them offline. It has a frontal e-ink display that displays a grid of pixel art icons that look very much like the original Mac. For the Nano Gent 5, Kare worked with the French company to design a set of nine pixel-art icons that are laser-engraved onto small aluminum tags. These tags physically snap into a dedicated slot on the Nano Gen 5, allowing owners to customize their device with a satisfying click. Kare got involved thanks to Tony Fadell”the Father of the Apple iPod” and board member of Ledgerwho called her to see if she’d like to work on the project. It was a call between old friends; the two had worked together at General Magic, the secretive Silicon Valley startup founded in 1990 by Apple veterans Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat that tried to build the first smartphone decades too early. Fadell knows her taste, Kare says, and pitched the project as a high-concept design challenge she would enjoy, similar to the work she did for Asprey Studio. He kept the details intentionally mysterious, not even mentioning Ledger by name at first. The only hook was the promise of a fun, creative puzzle. For Kare, that was more than enough. Of course, I wrote back immediately, like, tell me more, she recalls. A meeting in San Francisco with Ariel Wengroff, Ledgers EVP of Communications and Marketing, sealed the deal, and soon Kare was back at her digital drawing board. Ledger Nano Gen 5 [Photo: Ledger] Power and fun Kares collaboration comes as Ledger reinvents its flagship product. The new Ledger Nano Gen 5 is a significant evolution of the device used by eight million people in 165 countries. More than 20% of the world’s crypto assets are secured by its hardware wallets, the company tells me. Physically, Ledge Nano Gen 5 is larger and more refined, with a 2.76-inch E Ink touchscreen that now dominates its face. The new energy-efficient display enables advanced security features like clear signing, which gives you an unambiguous on-screen verification of any transaction or approval, and a Transaction Check function, a security feature that simulates a transaction to identify potential threats before you give final approval. The device, now officially called a signer to reflect its expanded role beyond just financial transactions, is built to be your key to a broader digital life. With Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC capabilities, its designed for on-the-go use, allowing you to securely manage your assets or verify your identity from anywhere. It connects to the revamped Ledger Wallet app, which acts as a secure control center for buying, swapping, and earning assets, and can now connect directly to popular decentralized apps, like 1inch, a service that searches across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges to find the best possible price for a token swap. The company claims that its devices have never been hacked, but every Nano Gen 5 includes a Ledger Recovery Key as a physical backup, just in case. While the technology is serious, the company claims it wanted to inject a dose of personality into the experience. Thats where Kare came in. Wengroff tells me that as our digital and physical lives blur, the team wanted to offer a form of personal expression. The idea was to create a series of collectible badges that would physically snap into the new Nanos chassis. We really thought, actually, the perfect person would be Susan Kare, Wengroff says. She believes that Kares has a legendary ability to create an emotional connection for new technology using her pixel art. The badges themselves are small, laser-engraved aluminum tags, each featuring a new pixel-art icon from Kare, manufactured in Ledgers own facility in Vierzon, France. They click into place with a satisfying snap, a small sensory experience. For Kare, the project was a perfect fit. I usually jokingly say, you know, give me 16 by 16 and a concept and I will make it happen, she says. The first step was deciding on the actual grid resolution. To ensure the designs were bold and clear on the small tags, she and the Ledger team opted for fewer, but larger, pixels, with each icon fitting within roughly an 18 by 20 pixel grid. Rather than being handed a specific list, the company just told Kare to do her thing. Any other thing would have been like asking David Bowie to write something retro like Life on Mars for you. She ultimately developed around 30 concepts for the team to choose from. Her goal was to create an assortment that felt fresh and spirited, steering clear of anything that felt like a standard emoji. Through weekly Zoom calls with Ledgers creative director, they whittled the collection down to the final nine, which include a mischievous cherry, a magic 8-ball, a horseshoe, and a chihuahua the team has fittingly named Nano. [Image: Ledger] But the bestand apparently everyones favoriteis the crowned frog. Wengroff believed it was a frog princess bt Kare was thinking about the frog prince. Its funny because I thought it was a frog prince, Kare says, referencing the fairy tale and the dating adage about having to kiss a lot of frogs. But, she adds, it can totally be either. And I realized that thats good. Wengroff notes that everyone in the office has interpreted the icons differently and picked their own favorites, proving the designs power to evoke a personal response. In fact, everyone in Wengroff’s team was so focused on the badges that she says she constantly had to remind everyone that the launch was for a new device, not for the badges. Which I guess is exactly the whole point of this article and also the device itself. For Kare, this is the joy of her work. While the device itself is the point, it is that little dab of something with a little feel of art or personality, as Kare describes it, what makes it (clickity clack) click. Its the same philosophy that has made her work timeless. And what makes the new Ledger Nano not just a powerful tool for securing your digital life, but a small canvas for expressing it.
Category:
E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. According to ResiClubs analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s new annual data, 40.3% of U.S. owner-occupied housing units are now mortgage-free, marking a new high for this data series. Thats up from 39.8% in 2023. The portion of homeowners with no mortgage has ticked up almost every year since 2010when it was 32.8%. A key factor driving the rise in mortgage-free homeownership is demographics. Older homeowners are more likely to be mortgage-free, and as Americans live longer and the massive baby boomer generation ages into their senior years, the U.S. population has skewed olderpushing up the share of homeowners without mortgages. According to ResiClubs analysis, 54% of the 35 million U.S. homeowners who are mortgage-free are 65 years old or older. People aged 65 and older make up more than a third (34.1%) of current U.S. homeowners. Among those 65 and older, 64% own their primary homes free and clear. Across the country, mortgage-free status varies A LOT. Regions with lower home values and areas with a higher proportion of older populations tend to have a slightly higher percentage of homeowners without mortgages. Among the 200 largest U.S. metros by population, these 5 have the HIGHEST percentage of mortgage-free homeowners: 61.8% > McAllen, TX 57.8% > Brownsville, TX 57.1% > Beaumont, TX 56.2% > Kingsport, TN 55.8% > Longview, TX Among the 200 largest U.S. metros by population, these 5 have the LOWEST percentage of mortgage-free homeowners: 26.4% > Washington, DC 27.0% > Provo, UT 27.1% > Denver, CO 27.2% > Greeley, CO 28.8% > Ogden, UT Click here to view an interactive version of the map below Mortgage-free homeownership has reached a new high. Demographicsparticularly the aging of baby boomersis a key force behind this trend. In the years ahead, ResiClub expects more equity products (such as reverse mortgages) to emerge and expand, as some older mortgage-free homeowners look to tap into the equity theyve built without selling their homes.
Category:
E-Commerce
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