Update*****PLEASE, YOU CANNOT MISS THE ANONYMOUS COMMENT & PRICELESS INPUT ON THIS POST FROM "A FELLOW MILLENIAL"
All eyes were on her, certainly not me, as we strolled into the upscale suburban supermarket to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. Who was this exotic blond creature that stood in stark contrast to the rest us wearing denim, sweaters, and tennis shoes?
She looked so URBAN. She seemed so CONFIDENT. She was having SO MUCH FUN.
Completely oblivious to their stares, she was wrapped from head to toe in black. Tightly cinched trenchcoat. Oversized sunglasses. High heeled boots, with a large designer purse slung over her shoulder. Cashmere scarf.
Her nails were perfectly manicured, discreet diamond studs in her ears, from which dangled the white wires of her hidden I-pod. Almost immediately, she parted ways with me to head straight for the Starbucks cafe within the store.
With a confidence like she had been there a million times before, she perched on a stool. Ordering a coffee that needed 10 words to identify, she began madly texting, and smiling into the little red phone.
When she finally met up with me, she had been to the floral department, because what would dinner be without fresh flowers? She had picked up Soy milk, a pre-packaged organic salad, and a glossy business magazine.
She had come from San Francisco, yet seemed more at home there than me. Why?
I had an ah-ha moment.The talk around the neighborhood had been the recent remodel of this supermarket. For the life of us, we couldn't figure out what they had been thinking when they re-designed "our" store into some sort of "upscale quicky-mart".
Yet here was someone that the store fit like a glove. My daughter had simply strolled in and found everything she needed in 5 minutes with ease, all the while enjoying the experience.
Yes, some marketing genius had re-invented the store...NOT FOR ME.... for the up and coming generation...and let me tell you, they won't be baking cookies, making casseroles, or cleaning floors.
The Millenials are coming! The Millenials are coming!Are you ready? These are the newly grown up children of baby boomers, born in 1980 and beyond.
Replacing aisles of canned goods was the new Starbucks. A huge floral department replaced all the cleaning supplies. A huge liquor department took up several aisles where there had once been Rice-A Roni. The produce had gone organic and pre-packaged. Racks of magazines that would appeal to someone with an MBA were near the Starbucks. Every possible health food and energy bar replaced the baking aisle. A quarter of the store had been taken up with a large deli, making certain no one had to ever cook a meal from scratch.
And the whole place had become bathed in a kind of soft romantic light, complete with wood plank floors, altering the atmosphere to be much more like a restaurant than a supermarket.
I got it.
They are the first generation to come of age with the internet. They are connected in a way that the world has never seen before. They live for their friends. They multi task. They do not sacrifice lifestyle for a job. They want to leave the world a better place. They want to experience life. Soon they will be buying real estate. What does this mean to all of us?
That we should be thinking like the genius that already has the supermarket designed for Millenials.
They're coming.
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