RUSH: I have a story here. This is from Business Insider: “‘Psychologically Scarred’ Millennials are Killing Countless Industries from Napkins to Applebee’s — Here are the Businesses They Like the Least.”
Ladies and gentlemen, do you know that every generation America is bombarded with revolutionaries who want to overthrow a bunch of tradition, they want to overthrow customs, they want to overthrow everything or much about life as they find it. You know who they are? They’re called children. Every generation, the children who grow up represent a terrific, quote, unquote, revolutionary threat to the way things are in the country. Your generation did. Mine did. This current crop of Millennials and the bunch following them, believe me, they’re tossing out all kinds of things that a bunch of generations prior to them lived by, were guided by and sought.
For how many generations was it that you were taught, and you accepted it, that if you worked hard, that if you did your best to play by the rules, that if you’re really committed, that you would be a success? But it took time, it took experience, it might be until you’re 35 or 40 before you’re able to buy your first starter house. But when you’re 20 and 25 you’re working towards it. That’s your objective. How many generations were children raised and accepted that as part of growing up? I don’t know. Was it two generations? Was it three?
Well, however many it was, this generation of Millennials with the age range being 18 to 34, they’re not interested in that or a lot of other things that previous generations have been interested in and, as such, the things that previous generations being interested in, the things that they built, the businesses they supported that then grew, the customs, the traditions, the behavior of things, those things became entrenched as part of American culture, are falling by the wayside as today’s Millennials are not interested. They have different ideas. One of the industries that is really, really threatened fall by the wayside is cable TV.
How many generations prior to Millennials couldn’t wait to get cable TV ’cause they were sick and tired of watching snow with rabbit ears on their TVs? They were sick and tired of only be able get three channels. Cable gave ’em 75, 100, 250! Oh, it was nirvana, and they were happy to pay whatever it cost. For a while. But Millennials, they hate cable TV; they hate anybody that charges them money for anything — particularly things that entertain them. They don’t think they should have to pay anything for that.
Many of them don’t even think they should ever leave home. Many of them don’t think they should ever have their own house. Many of them rent day to day, month to month, what have you. Many of ’em don’t use banks. They don’t put down roots. They don’t trust anything. They watch TV on a smartphone or a tablet. They’re happy to stream things on YouTube on a five-inch screen. “Don’t give me any of this 75-inch plasma TV deal. I don’t want that! I can’t afford that. I’m not gonna sit in my TV room all day doing that.
I want to be able to watch TV while I’m out doing cool things like object the skateboard or whatever the hell else. Walk the baby, whatever they’re doing. So some guy’s put together a list of industries that Millennials “are killing”! “Casual dining chains like … Buffalo Wild Wings, Ruby Tuesday, and Applebee’s have faced sales slumps and dozens of restaurant closings as casual-dining chains have struggled to attract customers and increase sales.
“‘Millennial consumers are more attracted than their elders to cooking at home, ordering delivery from [Grubhub], and eating quickly…’ [Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith] Smith wrote.” They don’t want to take an hour to eat, much less two. I don’t like doing that, either. They want to do it “fast-casual or quick-serve.” Get in, get it, and get out. The concept of starter homes. Millennials are killing that whole “concept of ‘starter homes’ [because] they’re renting longer and buying expensive houses later” as their first homes.”
Now, there has been news that Millennials don’t want to own homes or cars. That’s not true. It’s just they don’t want to start out in what they think is a shack. They will rent a shack until they have enough money to buy a nice place — and if that’s not ’til their thirties, then so be it. They might live with mom and dad ’til they have enough money to buy a house, but they’re not going to buy a starter house. They don’t want the junk.
“Beer.” Big Beer. Big-brand beer is out, but craft beer — microbreweries, these things you never heard of — the Millennials love them. “In late July, Goldman Sachs downgraded both Boston Beer Company and Constellation Brands based on data suggesting that younger consumers prefer wine and [adult beverages] to beer, as well as the fact that they’re drinking less alcohol than older generations more generally.
“Napkins. Younger consumers are opting for paper towels over napkins,” and some are not even doing that. They’re buying cloth rags, and they’re washing them every day. They don’t want napkins, paper napkins, paper towels, because they think it’s going to harm the climate. They do not like “‘Breastaurant’ chains like Hooters.” It’s no big deal to see a woman’s breasts hanging all over the place on social media.
Why do you have to go to a restaurant to see it when you can see it 25,000 times an hour on your computer screen? So in this, we finally have a Millennial communism being bro that makes some sense. But Hooters? No big deal. To see some almost topless babe at a restaurant? Big whoop! I can see this on my phone. I can see full-frontal nudity. I can interact with it with VR. I don’t need to go to Hooters, and so they’re not. “Cereal. Almost 40% of Millennials surveyed by Mintel said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it…”
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RUSH: Okay. Let’s see. What else do we have here? “Cereal… Golf.” I can tell you this. Millennials are not playing golf, and many of them — young Millennial guys — have an active dislike for it because you have to join a country club, and they hate that. They hate the whole country club scene because they don’t think they would ever get in. It’s too expensive and it’s too elite and it’s a bunch of stuffed-shirt, old-fashioned guys that never change.
Millennials don’t like things that don’t change. They can’t stand it! Golf is still using the rules it had 100 years ago? Who needs that? They don’t like the time it takes. So golf is not attracting Millennials. Losing…? What is it? Let’s see. What did I see? Four million people a year. I don’t think it’s that high. “Motorcycles. ‘Our data suggests the younger Gen Y population is adopting motorcycling at a far lower rate than prior generations,’ AB analyst David Beckel said…” They prefer to ride children’s toys. They’re more likely to ride stupid children’s toys than motorcycle.
“Homeownership.” I discussed that. “Yogurt.” Millennials, they’re not buying it, “especially light yogurt.” It can be traced, this decline, “to a growing demand for natural, protein-rich foods that fill up” consumers who don’t want to spend a whole lot of money eating, don’t want to take a lot of time, and the faster something fills you up, and the less it takes to do it, the better. They don’t use bar soap. “Bar soap sales fell 2.2% from 2014 to 2015… And, millennials are to blame.” Millennials, they don’t like bar soap. It’s impure. It’s either no soap whatsoever except for couple regions, or just get some of the stuff in a bottle, liquid stuff, squirt it out there and you’re done and get out.