“They’ve seen so much uncertainty that it’s their normal, and [it] has made them much more realistic and practical about spending and saving,” says Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, a consulting firm. “So, they created their own version of what spending should be according to the circumstances that existed when their spending habits were formed.”
SINGAPORE (May 6): The kids of Generation Z are about to become the planet’s biggest consumer spending force. That portends many opportunities in the globe’s two largest economies, the US and China. But retailers and brands in many developed nations with less robust economies are not cheering. That is because their Gen Z youth have grown up in the shadow of financial crises and economic recessions, leaving them indelibly marked by frugality.
Surveys show that unlike millennials, many members of Gen Z are cautious about excessive consumption. After seeing their parents walloped by the 2008 financial crisis, they are attracted to thrift stores, sustainable brands and saving for a rainy day — even when they have steady jobs and rising wages. That is particularly true in Europe and Japan, where growth has failed to bounce back as it has in the US and China. Those Gen Zers, born in the mid-1990s or later, are part of a generation that is entering the workforce with a far more cautious approach to spending than their predecessors.
