Wine Industry Problem: Only Boomers Love It
Understanding what motivates and inspires Boomers and Gen X since 2022
“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Wine industry grapples with being something only boomers like as younger consumers have ‘mindshare of wine half that of their elders’
That’s the conclusions of Silicon Valley Bank’s 2024 State of the US Wine Industry report, which is largely viewed as one of the most comprehensive analyses of the industry available.
Wine sales were down 3% overall last year, following declines for the last three years. And in 2023, sales of spirits in the U.S. topped the volume of wine sold. That’s the first time that has happened in 45 years. In addition, cannabis use is on the rise, which is proving a distraction for the audience, and a growing number of young consumers are eschewing alcohol altogether.
The bigger problem, though, is the wine-drinking consumer. Some 58% of consumers over the age of 65—essentially, the baby boomer generation—prefer wine to other alcoholic beverages. All other demographics are nearly 30 points lower. Even worse for vineyards is that younger consumers aren’t as interested in wine.
Empty-nest baby boomers won't give up their large homes — and it's hurting millennials with kids
Baby boomers whose kids don't live with them anymore are clinging to their large homes, making things worse for millennial families looking to settle down, a new Redfin analysis found.
In 2022, empty-nest boomers owned 28% of homes in the US with three or more bedrooms — double the 14% that millennials with kids owned, Redfin's analysis of Census Bureau data found. There's no city in the country where millennial families owned a larger share of big homes than boomers did.
‘I just count the laps’: Canadian swimmer, 99, breaks three world records
Betty Brussel sets records in the 100- to 104- year-old age class.
By the time an exhausted Betty Brussel finally swims to the finish and pulls herself from the pool, an Olympic athlete could have covered the same distance at least three times. But the 99-year-old Canadian’s quiet determination has led her to shatter world records and transformed her into an unlikely celebrity within the amateur swim community.
Younger people are admitting baby boomers got these 17 things right
"Kids shouldn't be on phones or iPads all the time. It makes them weird.”
In recent years, baby boomers have often been the target of criticism from younger generations. The most common accusations are that boomers are selfish and don’t care about leaving ample resources (whether financial or environmental) to subsequent generations.
They also come under fire for not being able to acknowledge that it was easier for people of their generation to come of age when things were more affordable and life was a lot less competitive. However, we should also understand that many of today’s problems are not the boomers’ doing, especially when it comes to the issues that stem from entitled children and technology run amok. In hindsight, there’s something to be said about the importance that boomers placed on self-reliance, letting kids be kids and having a healthy skepticism towards technology.
The electric vehicle revolution may be ‘running out of charge,’ BofA says—and it flags baby boomers as the main culprit
A new Bank of America Institute report didn’t just lower projections for electric vehicle sales through 2030, it used internal auto-loan originations data to tell us why. Writing that EVs represent one area of the auto market that “still appears relatively soft,” BofA found three main reasons why shoppers are shying away from the next generation of driving. But it also identified a generational shift in consumption—and baby boomers and “traditionalists” are leading the exodus away from EVs.
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