Boomers quit spending, perhaps for good?

Photo: Jim Donnelly (Flickr)

Earlier this week, I predicted that the nation's resolve to stop shopping, which some see as a shift to more responsible shopping, won't last long. As soon as there is an economic recovery, it will be shop-'til-you-drop again.

Denise Lee Yohn (who has an excellent blog here) commented that she was already back to her "old drive-everywhere self" now that the price of gas has fallen from its record highs of last year. She also raised the issue of generations of consumers and that perhaps a "more socially-conscious generation that drives the trends today might be more committed to a scaled-back lifestyle than the repressed boomers who set the tone in the 80's."

That reminded that I'd seen something recently about boomer shopping behavior. I'm not sure what I read originally but this article from the Press-Telegram sums up the thought: "Baby Boomers have pumped up the global economy with their profligate ways for nearly two decades. It's been a great party. Now the music's over."

"Millions of Boomers," the article goes on to say "are realizing that 'hope I die before I get old' was just a sarcastic line in a rock and roll song, not a life plan." As Boomers hit their earnings peak right around the Millennium, the U.S. household saving rate went as low as 2 percent of income (from 10 percent during the early 1980s). Now the recession has probably provided an early wake-up call to this generation to change its ways.

Olivia Mitchell, a professor at the Wharton business school, commenting in the article says: "The Baby Boomers are going to have to work longer and eat less. And go back to what my mother was doing — saving string."