BOOK REVIEW
A TIMELINE OF
AUSTRALIAN FOOD
www.foodtechnology.co.nz 13
THE RISE OF THE MILLENNIAL
Millennial consumers in New Zealand
have been labelled as big spenders,
wasting their money on smashed avocado
and takeaway coffee. And there’s
more than a bit of truth to the epitaph.
In a report analysing spending behaviour
by consumers aged 25-29, Marketview
found that in the past eight years, these
consumers have increased their spending
by 56%, outstripping their growth in
population. Much of Millennial’s spending
growth is due to a growing interest in
eating out…whether it be cafes, restaurants,
bars or fast food, Millennials really
are dining out much more than previous
generations. With their preoccupation
with convenience, takeaways are an
increasingly popular purchase for this age
group – our spending figures revealed
that in 2017, Millennials spent more on
takeaways than they did at clothing,
footwear, health, beauty, pharmacy and
cosmetic stores combined. We also
identified that Millennials have a strong
preference for online shopping, with
spending growth for nearly all online
categories outstripping their bricks and
mortar equivalents. Figures show that
since 2009, these consumers have more
than tripled the amount they spend online,
now allocating 10% of their spending
budgets to online purchases. Popular
online categories for Millennials are
fashion, accommodation and, increasingly,
groceries and food, encouraged
by convenience and growing availability.
While many industries both on and offline
are benefitting from Millennial money,
figures from Marketview identified an
emerging trend with potential to impact
the wider retail landscape…younger consumers
are increasingly spending their
money outside the central cities. In the
past eight years, spending by Millennials
in non-metro areas increased by more
than 50%, while the CBDs of Auckland,
Wellington and Christchurch combined
only saw a 14% increase in spending
from these consumers. As young people
increasingly turn to online options
for their everyday shopping needs, the
concept of the CBD and ‘High Street’
is becoming somewhat redundant, at
least to Millennials. As they no longer
need to head out to the shops in the city
every weekend, Millennials are breathing
life back into the ‘local village’, bringing
business back to their communities as
they go out for coffee, drinks and dinner
in their local neighbourhoods - a phenomenon
we are only seeing increase as this
group grows. Millennials are not to be
underestimated in their spending power
and ability to alter the retail environment.
Retailers need to pay attention to the
preferences and spending patterns of
this generation if they want to profit
from what is a highly valuable group
of consumers, and not be left behind.
Wellington-based Marketview analyses
consumer spending patterns from reliable
sources across all categories, enabling a
deeper understanding of how consumers
behave and helping clients across a
range of industries to understand what
is driving their sales growth or decline.
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According to Wikipedia, Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are the
generational demographic cohort following Generation X. Demographers and
researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-
1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years. Millennials are sometimes referred
to as 'echo boomers' due to a major surge in birth rates in the 1980s and 1990s,
and because millennials are often the children of baby boomers.
77664_NZFoodTechadv_v2.indd 1 29/08/2017 4:32 PM
MILLENNIALS
From Mutton to MasterChef
by Jan O’Connell (Newsouth
Publishing, $39.99, available now).
We might strongly differentiate ourselves
from our Aussie cousins
across the Ditch, but on the most
part, we’re as similar as lamingtons
and pavlovas. Therefore, you can
be forgiven for being quite interested
in this fascinating timeline of
Australian food over the past 150
years, because it mirrors many of
the achievements we have shared.
O’Connell - who says she isn’t a
foodie, doesn’t eat out often, isn’t
known for her gourmet dinner parties
and shies away from latest trends –
started thinking about the changes
in Australian food over the past
century and a half, and where the
industry has gone in that time. “Like
many other baby boomers, I grew
up with meat and three veg,” she
says. “Takeaway food was fish and
chips or a pie and my parents’ regular
tipples were beer or sweet sherry.
What a long way we’ve come since
then.” A grocer’s granddaughter,
O’Connell has spent a lifetime in
advertising agencies writing about
ice cream, lollies, beer, yoghurt, soup
and a multitude of other things we
eat and drink. She started writing
the history (from 1860 to 2010) on
a website called the Australian Food
History Timeline.
Jessica Brown of Rotorua
has won this book.
MY SAY
If your MilIennial offspring have stayed living at home pleading poverty, yet waste what ‘little’ they
have on copious takeaway flat whites and smashed avocado, are you forgiven for being miffed? Kiwi
consumer spending specialist Marketview managing director Stephen Bridle says yeah, nuh, maybe.
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