Rachel Cruze and George Kamel: What Today’s Teens Are Buying vs. Millennials 20 Years Ago
Written by
Catherine Collins
Edited by
Joe Evans
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Recently, George Kamel and Rachel Cruze hosted an episode of their Smart Money Happy Hour show called “What Today’s Teens Are Buying (vs. Us 20 Years Ago).” Kamel and Cruze are both financial experts and Ramsey Personalities at Ramsey Solutions, a company founded by Cruze’s father, Dave Ramsey. On the show, Cruze and Kamel discuss a range of topics from unique money traditions, to money scams.
In their chat discussing millennials as teens and teens of today, they used data from Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock With Teens survey.
This survey is the 47th semi-annual poll of U.S. teens discussing teen spending habits. The survey asks teens to rank their favorite footwear, places to eat, athletic apparel, cosmetics and even their preferred media consumption habits. Interestingly, many of the brands millennials enjoyed when they were teenagers are still popular with teens today.
Let’s take a closer look at what the younger generations are spending their extra cash on.
Current Teen Shopping Trends
The survey outlined many different teen shopping trends. The top shopping website was, predictably, Amazon with 55% of the vote. Teens visited Sephora as their top beauty destination but the top cosmetic brand was the more affordable e.l.f. cosmetics.
Teens are also predominantly using CeraVe as their top skincare brand and their favorite handbag brand is Coach followed by Louis Vuitton. They mostly consume videos on Netflix shortly followed by YouTube, and the teen’s top social media platform is TikTok then Instagram.
Teens today have more of an affinity for skincare than millennials did as young teenagers. A CNBC article reported that even younger children, like those in Generation Alpha, are becoming increasingly interested in their skincare routines, moisturizers and serums.
Teen’s Favorite Brands
Here are some of the standouts from the research presented in the survey’s findings:
Nike
Nike earned 61% of teen’s votes as their favorite footwear brand. Interestingly, 35% of surveyed teens also listed Nike as their top clothing brand.
Bath & Body Works
You might think of candles and soap when you think of Bath & Body Works, but it’s the top place for today’s teenagers to purchase fragrances.
Chick-fil-A
When it comes to favorite food chains, Chick-fil-A reigns supreme followed by Starbucks. Chick-fil-A has been a favorite for several years in a row.
Millennial Shopping Habits
When millennials were teens, they spent much less time shopping online since buying clothes on the internet was a relatively new concept. Millennials got catalogs in the mail with clothing ideas to buy. There was no social media, Instagram, TikTok or influencers when millennials were teenagers. Instead, millennials followed their favorite celebrities on TV and followed musicians on MTV.
Some of the popular stores millennials frequent for clothing include Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. Like today’s teens, Nike shoes were a hot commodity as well as Converse.
The original Nike Air Max 1 came out in 1987 and the price was $75. When Nike re-released the Air Max 1 in 2017, the price was $140, according to reporting by GQ magazine. With the cost of inflation, this is a reasonable price increase, especially because Nike reported it took significant research and trial and error to re-create such an iconic shoe.
Chick-fil-A prices have changed quite a bit as well. In 1986, a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich was $2.09. Today it’s around $5.75, although prices differ depending on your location.
Millennials vs. Today’s Teens
Interestingly, some brands just have staying power. Nike was a popular brand for millennials growing up and remains a top brand for teens today. There are some differences in how teens today and millennials as teens purchase items and follow trends.
Although millennials are the generation that grew up with the emergence of the internet, they still have portions of their adolescence they spent without being connected online. Millennials roamed the mall as teenagers and watched MTV at home. Cruze and Kamel, both millennials, shared their own experiences as teenagers growing up as well as dished out helpful money advice.
Final Thoughts
Today’s teenagers are much more connected and influenced by online personalities on social media platforms. It seems they have an interest in skincare at an earlier age and have an interest in both affordable and higher-end brands.
Today’s teens regularly shop on Amazon, whereas millennials as teens were among the first to even trust that it was ok to purchase books from a new store called Amazon on the internet.
Suffice it to say, that shopping and marketing to teens have changed substantially over the past 20 years, but many things have also stayed the same.
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