Dennis Lombardi

The Era of Millennials

If the Millennials haven’t been on your radar, it’s time to start paying attention. Born roughly between 1977 and 2000, The Millennials have surpassed the Boomer generation in size, and their reliance on foodservice.  There are 83 million Millennials vs. 78 million Boomers. More important, Millennials frequent all types of restaurants—from QSR to Casual Dining—significantly more than Boomers.

However, they make choices differently than Boomers, placing different priorities on restaurants’ attributes. Where they like to go, and what they like to do, may overlap somewhat with Boomers, but don’t count on it as a way to attract them to your restaurant.

WD Partners just finished a consumer research project on Millennials and we found some surprises as we looked through the data.  (It will be presented at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference on November 11th in Las Vegas.)

It made me wonder, if so many of the chain restaurant concepts that were created by Boomers, and grew into regional and national chains by catering to the Boomers, could attribute some of their traffic declines to how well they have, or have not, evolved to attract Millennials? 

Of course, this transition will continue for a number of years to come, but your understanding of Millennials will become more critical with each passing year.

Posted by Dennis Lombardi on November 3, 2008 | Comments (2)