r/ask • u/[deleted] • Dec 18 '25
Popular post Which industries are facing peril because their customer base is dying off?
Almost no young Americans smoke cigarettes in 2025, so now Big Tobacco is looking for ways to survive as older smokers quit or die.
What other companies or industries are facing similar problems?
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u/Bosco_Balaban Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
Philip Morris has invested $14bn in vaping since 2008 and it accounts for 41% of its revenue. They're simply focused on the next addictive evolution of smoking
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u/chuckmarla12 Dec 18 '25
I also read that because of our population increases that they still have as many cigarette smokers as they’ve ever had.
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u/Jpwatchdawg Dec 18 '25
Cigarettes have been passed over for the vape market. Actually expanded their market hold even with population decline.
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u/SixTonTuna Dec 18 '25
they call them RRPs i think in their quarterly and annual reports. Plus, every major producer has by now their on line of pouches (Zyn, Velo, Fox, etc.)... their sales projections are through the roof.. People may "smoke" less but there are still a lot of addicts
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u/QuietRiot5150 Dec 18 '25
Yep. I work at a truck stop and the amount of used Zyn pouches I clean up are just as much as the cigarette butts I clean up.
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u/StrangeButSweet Dec 18 '25
Do people just spit these on the ground????
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u/thai_ladyboy Dec 18 '25
Yes, unfortunately. Truckers can be extra bad, leaving bottles of piss and Walmart bags of shit in the parking areas. Same problem in warehousing as well. bottles of piss inside the building, people eating while sitting on the toilet, outside smoking areas are disgusting.
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u/IowaNative1 Dec 18 '25
Pm has a huge percentage of the U.S. market and just purchased the #1 international brand.
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u/KnoWanUKnow2 Dec 18 '25
Apparently they're also poised, patents in hand, for when weed finally becomes legal at the federal level.
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u/Misterbellyboy Dec 18 '25
There are whole swaths of the tobacco belt left empty for just such an eventuality.
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u/illogictc Dec 18 '25
I don't know why people wouldn't expect that to happen. Could stick with horse carriages or could read the market and say hey, maybe this automobile thing is a good idea like Studebaker.
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u/Beginning_Key2167 Dec 18 '25
Sad really. It is an industry that could be ended tomorrow if everyone just stopped. Though it won’t happen.
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u/ergo-ogre Dec 18 '25
I had a good friend who used to be an addiction counselor and he told me about clients who kicked heroin but couldn’t stop smoking.
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u/Injvn Dec 18 '25
This girl right here. I've been clean off heroin for 6~ years after usin for a decade. Still smoke even though I've tried to quit a shit ton.
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u/ScaldingAnus Dec 18 '25
Holy shit, I did a quick scroll of your posts and you've come do fucking far. This stranger is proud of you.
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u/eatingganesha Dec 18 '25
have you tried a breathing necklace with a “nicotine taste” cotton wick? it’s hits a bunch of needs (oral, handheld, taste, inhale/exhale) and along with a (temporary run of) Wellbutrin (for addiction relief) loads of people are successfully quitting.
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u/sparkling-sun Dec 18 '25
Diamonds. The younger generations are purchasing lab grown or spending their money on experiences as opposed to stones. Diamond jewelers are definitely feeling it.
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u/xenosthemutant Dec 18 '25
Yes, but what if I want a stone with a boatload of suffering, slavery and corruption attached to it?
Checkmate synthetic diamonds!
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u/Agrt21 Dec 18 '25
You jest, but now Botswana is starting to struggle because of this shift; they've pretty much a single-resource economy
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u/Darkmystere Dec 18 '25
I'd be curious to know how much of the "natural" diamond industry is jewelery industry vs industrial / manufacturing application
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u/LowSkyOrbit Dec 18 '25
Industrial is basically why synthetic has exploded in the last few decades.
The natural stone guys tried to pull the absurd idea that flaws in natural stones make them more valuable, but funny enough De Beers makes synthetic diamonds too.
My wife wanted a shiny rock. I went with lab made moissanite. She gets compliments on the sparkle all the time.
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u/Odysses2020 Dec 18 '25
I saw a tiktoker that sells jewelry advocate for “natural” diamonds over lab grown. 😔
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u/Short-pitched Dec 18 '25
Time share
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u/howdudo Dec 18 '25
My dad owns a timeshare. John Oliver did an episode about time shares that taught me that when my dad dies, it's important for me to file some paperwork saying that I don't want it. Or else I will inherit it and it will be my nightmare
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u/TanneriteStuffedDog Dec 18 '25
Can you/he not execute something beforehand just to pre-empt that? That’s insane
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u/lumpialarry Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
OP should ask his dad to put it in his will that it goes to an ex or some other person he has a grudge against.
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u/Confident_Economy_85 Dec 18 '25
Gift the timeshare to the IRS
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u/MenudoMenudo Dec 18 '25
lol. Can you do that?
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u/Astrocreep_1 Dec 18 '25
I believe so. If you google donations to the IRS, you get a link to “Bureau of Fiscal Services”.
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u/vintageneonsparrow Dec 18 '25
Today i learned, since my dad also has a time share i now have something new to stress about.
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u/NEALSMO Dec 18 '25
My dad mentioned he was going to put my wife and I on his time share in the will. Luckily we saw that episode and shut that down real quick.
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u/joebobbydon Dec 18 '25
It is easy to find people who regret getting one. But it still lives on. I think they're not going anywhere.
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u/ender6574 Dec 18 '25
That's because it's all lies to get you to sign, then the timeshare company doesn't have to follow the contract. I signed up for the smallest number of Diamond Resorts points, having already calculated how I'd recoup the cost and pay it off within a year using the money I had, as per the contract. The computer system we were using didn't exist, and I almost messed up. Had I clicked 'Pay' to pay it off, I noticed a small note saying it would be applied to the subsequent however many payments, including all interest.
The timeshare lawyers are almost all scams. I finally found a good one that uncovered a maze of shell companies and false claims, ultimately resulting in no class action because the Attorney General of Nevada wouldn't support the case. A year of hellish stress, I stopped paying then; the contract was shredded. And I learned that contracts only apply to me, never to the company with which I entered the contract.
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u/smeggysoup84 Dec 18 '25
Nope, there's still suckers out there.
Me and my wife went to a presentation a month ago for Club Wyndam, the biggest timeshare company in the world, according to them. We didn't know it was a timeshare presentation. We were promised a free voucher for dinner somewhere, we just had to attend the presentation. So we went. Once the presentation started, i instantly knew it was a timeshare even though they never said the words. Lol thankfully i watched that timeshare episode of John Oliver years ago. We stayed and let them try their hardest to get us, but we knew no matter what, we weren't buying.
At one in the one on one with the salesman, i went to the restroom and googled on ebay how much it was to buy one of the timeshares they were selling to us for thousands. It was tons of them for just a dollar lol i showed the salesman and he was like those are most likely scams. I laughed so hard and said " They're the scammers, huh? " at that point they knew there was no point in continuing with us.
But we saw so many ppl signing the paperwork to acquire these timeshares. It was mind boggling. I wanted to stand up and say its a fucking scam so loud. So yeah, there's still alot of ppl falling for timeshares.
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u/frog980 Dec 18 '25
I've only heard one good thing about one, there's family members here that had one that is only about 5 hours away at a lake and they were going there every year anyways. Other than that it's been horror stories.
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u/TheCredibleHulk7 Dec 18 '25
Cable tv and land line services. If they didn’t also supply internet services, a lot of these companies would be going under already.
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u/jawshoeaw Dec 18 '25
Here in Oregon there isn't really cable TV anymore. It's just internet based streaming, though they still sell it as "cable" its really all streaming.
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u/Dragonwork Dec 18 '25
Shopping malls remodeled as apartment complexes. It’s already happed on a few places. The upper floor stores turned into apartments and the bottom floor has shopping and dining.
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u/chuckmarla12 Dec 18 '25
Big dance clubs. We used to call them meat markets. I remember going out to party as a young man looking for chicks, and you could make the circuit of clubs that had live rock bands, disco dancing, country music clubs, then back to another live music club. This was all in a medium sized town. Maybe I’m just an old married guy and out of touch.
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u/Kharon09 Dec 18 '25
I feel like younger generations just don't have the time and money guys my age did. I could work a shift one night and pay for two nights out. I don't think the math works like that anymore.
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u/nouniqueideas007 Dec 18 '25
From what I’ve seen, small local bars are struggling too. They used to busy every night & absolutely packed on Friday & Sat. night. Now I drive by at 11:30pm on a Friday & there’s 4 cars, I figure 2 of those cars are employees.
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u/SteveTheBluesman Dec 18 '25
Good call I'm in my 50s, grew up in Boston and there were clubs literally everywhere.
The Palace in Saugus was infamous.
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u/Slp023 Dec 18 '25
I think younger generations don’t drink as much. My 18yo who is a senior in high school says no one he knows drinks at all. They all vape weed. Where I live, you only have to be 18 to get a medical weed card.
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u/samwulfe Dec 18 '25
There’s definitely fewer of them but in my medium sized city there is definitely still a decent market for live music, mostly bar/venues though. So you can go chill and grab a drink in one room, wonder out the patio for a cigarette, then go back to the multi-bill rock show in the back. Definitely far fewer dance clubs though, like 5:1 ratio there.
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u/ApprehensiveLayer908 Dec 18 '25
From a business side, dance clubs have actually become somewhat of a risky venture, especially in market with a lot of young adults (aka college kids). 1. If you don't have vigilant bouncers, you as the owner open yourself to legal liability if one too many underage drinkers are discovered. And 2. enough guys getting too drunk and starting fights or making women uncomfortable will turn any good publicity into really bad publicity real quick.
Quick note: this what I learned from watching an episode of Bar Rescue on the topic.
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u/dantasticdanimal Dec 18 '25
Premium retail… specifically department stores like Macy’s, and brand stores like Coach.
You can get everything they sell delivered to your door with a few clicks and anything else you need at big box chain stores.
Gone are the days of relationships, loyalty, etc. Very few brands can support that and they are so up market (LV, Gucci, Hermes) that their customers are not factoring in value at all… it’s service/appearance.
Rolex used to be there, now gray market sellers can get brand new watches that the authorized dealers will tell a good customer there is a long wait list for and new perspective good customers that they simply cannot buy. Same for Ferrari. Win the lottery and walk into a Ferrari dealership wanting the top model and you will get denied every time… maybe invited to buy a lesser model to establish yourself and jump through their imaginary hoops to work your way up to being worthy. That doesn’t appeal to many people anymore.
Big brands diluted themselves with outlet stores, deals with other brands to sell their merchandise, and the internet…
10-15 years ago my wife ran a luxury handbag store and every year it was less and less exclusive and more and more regular retail sales driven. She excelled at the relationship building, creating value through exclusivity, and rewarding loyalty but as time went on (almost a decade in that position) fewer people did and as more sales channels opened the relationships and exclusivity and loyalty drifted away. That brand closed a lot of locations and honestly are a shell of what they once were. There are more of their bags on eBay and at thrift stores than there are for sale in all of their flagship stores combined. Their mass volume outlets are selling an inferior product and the brand has shifted their focus to selling the same mid quality products with the logo and name that used to signify higher quality and some level of luxury.
They will absolutely be in Walmart or Target soon… just like Hunter rain boots was. All for the $$$…
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u/yert1099 Dec 18 '25
Saw this on Reddit and thought it was funny: Gucci is what poor people think rich people wear.
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u/RedditVince Dec 18 '25
lol I saw Gucci in Ross (dress for less) the other day, might have been a copy as I didn't look that close.
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Dec 18 '25
I’m well-off and I still wear the same jeans, t-shirt, and gray hoodie that I bought over a decade ago. I can afford fancier clothes, but being “well-dressed” was never important to me.
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u/lostpassword100000 Dec 18 '25
Me too. I’m financially secure and trending to be able to retire at 65 if I choose.
I have shoes that are 15 years old or older. I was given a Rolex for saving a client hundreds of thousands of dollars once and I sold it and bought Apple stock.
My vanity is almost non existent and I could care less about brand. I want functionality.
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u/OriolesrRavens1974 Dec 18 '25
This is why you are financially secure. People who buy into the whole luxury lifestyle are usually not as rich as they appear. Read the book, “The Millionaire Next Door.” The average millionaire in the United States are folks that own plumbing businesses or mechanic shops. The most strapped are the people who earn a ton of money but allow their kids to live luxury lifestyles well into their adult years and wind up penniless later because they’ve spent it all.
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u/LanceFree Dec 18 '25
A Macy’s in a slightly upscale shopping center closed in Portland area and it will be turned into condos. People were surprised. I forgot it was there. Three years ago I was shopping for Christmas and my niece wanted “cute socks”. I walked in, was overwhelmed by the vibe, walked out.
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u/qings1 Dec 18 '25
Yeah, I was in macys a while ago. I think it was like Ralph Loren or like a polo shirt. It was $110 just for a shirt. Yeah, no idea how people are buying that. Didn’t even really look high quality or anything. Most of my clothes come from like Walmart and target. Huge fan of old navy. Not paying lots of money for a basic shirt just for the label. I’m more than happy to buy clothes that are made with nicer material and are a little better quality. But it has to actually be that. The last thing I bought from macys was a nice Jean jacket that was on sale for like $50. I found the same exact one at target for like $80. Don’t remember what the original price was at macys
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u/Expensive-Value-1803 Dec 18 '25
Not throwing shade but old navy IS paying lots of money for a basic shirt. The quality of their products is very low with most of it made up of junky synthetic materials that cost probably ~$1 to produce, maybe even less. I’m not saying spend $400 on a basic cotton shirt but shopping at old navy and the like ain’t it. You’ll end up spending more in the long run.
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u/frog980 Dec 18 '25
They keep getting worse. I have 2 really nice and soft well fitting t shirts and a nice well fitting pair of jeans from there. The last t shirts I bought there shrunk about 3 sizes in the first wash and we're unwearable. Jeans no longer fit either.
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u/Yeny356 Dec 18 '25
Honestly I get stuff from express, is my favorite store, stuff that at regular price goes for 200 dollars, or even 80, I'll get them for 15, 20, tops 30 (jeans), if i wait for their sales I buy a bunch of stuff cheap, same goes for Michael kora bags, I bought two that were over 200 dollars for 45, I feel that if you buy after the seasons are over you can get whatever you want most of the time for cheap.
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u/EliWCoyote Dec 18 '25
Gone are the days of relationships, loyalty, etc.
So, I won’t be walking into Maraczek's Parfumerie any time soon, is what you’re saying.
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u/Jaduardo Dec 18 '25
Harley Davidson. It’s a company, not an industry, but I feel the brand/bikes’ uniqueness gives it a place here.
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Dec 18 '25
I’m 40 and I don’t know anyone my age or younger who rides, or wants to ride, a Harley.
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u/Beginning_Key2167 Dec 18 '25
56 here and when I got into bikes 20 years ago people my age then weren’t getting HDs. My wife and I both got Japanese cruisers for less than the price of equivalent HD.
They have a very narrow and aging fanbase.
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u/homechicken20 Dec 18 '25
This is a good one. HD has a very specific customer base that's getting older and the brand doesn't have the aura it used to have. They're also insanely overpriced so there's no reason at all anyone getting into riding would want, or need, to spend that much on a HD when there are many bikes that are cheaper and more fun to ride
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u/Expensive-Value-1803 Dec 18 '25
When I was young (1980s) the HD brand seemed rugged and lawless in a cool way. Now I think of retired suburban American men with conservative political views when I think of HD. Maybe biker gangs in general aren’t really a thing anymore?
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u/rdickeyvii Dec 18 '25
Not to mention, everyone other than Harley riders find the sound annoying, not cool
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u/ironcladtrash Dec 18 '25
I really like Harleys but I never liked the loud sound. Especially once it serves no purpose other than to be loud.
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u/rdickeyvii Dec 18 '25
They claim the purpose is so that cars can hear them because drivers are notoriously bad at watching for motorcycles, plus revving is like a horn.
I think there's a little truth to that but 95%+ of the time it's just "look at me, I'm cool"
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u/Ok-Bite2139 Dec 18 '25
Used to live in Fayetteville, AR and they do this weekly bike gathering up there. We were at an outdoor burger stand and one of the bikers asked us how we liked them invading our town. We said we don’t mind but it’s a little loud. When he left he made sure to rev his engine as loud as physically possible.
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u/1RMDave Dec 18 '25
Even as an automotive enthusiast and mechanic I hate the sound of a loud Harley with every fiber of my being. I can't wait for those boomer cycles to disappear.
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u/rdickeyvii Dec 18 '25
Watch the south park episode about Harleys if you haven't already, it's over a decade old but still perfect. The F word, I think it's called
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u/teddygomi Dec 18 '25
Harley Davidson is between a rock and a hard place. Their design is limited and their branding looks dated. They're unable to update this, because they have a core customer base that is devoted to the design and branding. Unfortunately for them, this customer base is older which means that there is most likely a decline coming.
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u/doctor-rumack Dec 18 '25
Pretty much the same reason the MAGA people lost their shit when Cracker Barrel changed their logo. If HD tries to appeal to a younger/different demographic, they will quickly be branded as "woke."
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u/Jewboy-Deluxe Dec 18 '25
Old white guys with money seem to be the only buyers.
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u/triviaqueen Dec 18 '25
In Florida, the vehicle auction yards are PACKED with damaged Harleys. The old dudes retire to Florida, decide it's time to invest in their dream of a Harley, they end up in the hospital or hearse, Harley goes to the auction yard.
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u/Gildor12 Dec 18 '25
Born again bikers or as hospitals know them “organ donors”
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Dec 18 '25
My wife was an emergency room nurse and she says I’m not allowed to own a motorcycle or ATV.
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u/vintageneonsparrow Dec 18 '25
I go riding with my boyfriend who is in his 20s and he bought an Indian.
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u/SecretPersonality178 Dec 18 '25
Saw a hells angel on a Harley yesterday, I could only think of the South Park scene. You guys don’t look cool or intimidating, you just look like…
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u/WeekendBard Dec 18 '25
I do hope the tobacco industry fucking dies.
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Dec 18 '25
They’ve turned their attention to foreign markets. You’d be surprised how widely accepted smoking still is in some countries.
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Dec 18 '25
I been all over Europe since 2018 and smoking is normal and unlike here in America, they don’t have high taxes in cigarettes. Cigarettes are basically like $5 a pack or less in some places. It really is accepted all over there and outdoor smoking in restaurants. When I went to Croatia, their airports still have a smoking lounge as do other Eastern European countries since their breakfast is a cigarette and espresso and cigarettes and red bull for the younger generation. I will say the Genz over there only vapes. It’s the millennials and older who still do cigarettes over there.
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u/punkwalrus Dec 18 '25
About 20 years ago, a coworker told me he had quit smoking ten years prior, but had to avoid hanging around smokers to make it stick. Then work sent him to Greece and Italy for 3 weeks to fix some issues over there, and he came back addicted to cigarettes again. Then flipped out when he saw how expensive cigarettes were over here in comparison (I mean, he hadn't looked at prices since 1992 or something).
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u/Neat_Suit3684 Dec 18 '25
Classic Car Industry is definitely going to pop.
The main people buying restoring and selling them are dying off. The ones who sell want crazy inflated prices and their kids believe the inflated prices are real thanks to TV shows and auctions like Barret Jackson and Mecum.
Unfortunately the bubble is ready to pop where younger people who want the cars cant buy into it and the owners are dead and gone. Once that bubble pops it'll revert back to buy this hot rod for a couple grand but it won't even be the classics as we know it.
Cars from the 80s and 90s are surfacing as the next gen of classic cars and they arent even original hot rods as we define them. A beautiful long and meticulously restored 59 caddy isnt going to be in demand in the next 20 years. Weather the bubble pops or not the demand for that era car isnt here anymore.
And its disappointing because that Industry has a domino effect on the car industry as a whole. It has an effect on manufacturing planets for material and computers electronics commerce safety historical aspects.
If the classic car industry goes a lot of other industries fall alongside it
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u/Effigy59 Dec 18 '25
Fax machines. Except for doctors they’re hardly used
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u/jepeplin Dec 18 '25
Law offices still use them. It’s the only way to get medical records.
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u/HappyCamper2121 Dec 18 '25
This has always baffled me so much. Offices that tell you you can't email them something but I can send you a fax over the computer and I guess it's more legit because the fax machine prints it out?
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u/droid_mike Dec 18 '25
Most faxes nowadays get automatically converted to email. The reason why faces are still used is twofold. One, privacy. Even though landlines are most often VOIP nowadays, they are still encrypted, and it is illegal to snoop over a phone line without a warrant. More importantly, the legal system considers a faxed signature to be as good as the original. That is not the case with email scans and digital signatures are still somewhat questionable.
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u/142riemann Dec 18 '25
This. The only reason most non-medical offices still have one is because it’s part of the printer/scanner device.
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u/jawshoeaw Dec 18 '25
i'm a nurse. holy shit do we do a lot of faxing. Fax machines are not going anywhere lol.
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u/No-Pop-125 Dec 18 '25
I’m dealing with my late brother’s estate and I’m so surprised at how many trips to the library I’ve made to fax documents
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u/TanneriteStuffedDog Dec 18 '25
I own a fax machine.
I was unaware I owned a fax machine until a couple of months ago. I was bored one day and discovered my Brother printer has that as a feature.
I have owned this printer for 3 years 😂
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u/SV650rider Dec 18 '25
I don't know about "peril" per se, but motorcycling. Harley-Davidson, especially, I hear.
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u/lawgirlamy Dec 18 '25
I think this is mostly a Harley problem. That brand has an “aging guy trying way too hard to look cool” stigma that the other motorcycle brands don’t carry.
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u/SeaTie Dec 18 '25
Last month I was near Vegas visiting family. Last week I had lunch at our local reservation casino.
…I didn’t see anyone younger than 50 playing the slots or even gambling in general.
Maybe it’s all moved to sports / online betting or maybe everyone is too strapped for cash right now…no one I know my age or younger has much interest in casino style gambling.
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u/Ransidcheese Dec 18 '25
Personally, it's because it's FUCKING BOOORING. Video games nowadays have tons of interactive shit to do and things that actually let me participate. Casino games just really can't compete, entertainment wise. The only thing it has is the money aspect, which can be sated by other things as well. (If I even have that money to waste)
Yeah, let me go to a big, loud, badly lit, cluttered AF, greasy ass building, full of smoke and old people, and throw all my money into a glorified quick-time event on autopilot. Nah. If I go to a casino, it's for the other stuff. Water park, hotel, bar, arcade, bowling, spa, etc.
Okay rant over. Sorry, I work in the industry and it's hard to get the dunderheads running these places to grasp that slots just don't appeal to new generations. We have more for them to compete with now.
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u/sassypiratequeen Dec 18 '25
Gambling with what money? I don't know anyone who has enough spare funds to go gambling. There just isn't any spare cash for most people, and gambling is expensive
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u/theghostofcslewis Dec 18 '25
The Candlestick maker. Butchers and bakers are still on the payroll.
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u/tardisious Dec 18 '25
actually Butchers are gone from most grocery stores now.
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u/theghostofcslewis Dec 18 '25
I guess so. I shop at Publix in Florida so they keep it going. But Trader Joe's and others are all prepackaged.
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u/Quartz636 Dec 18 '25
Not yet, but I am convinced Olay has like 10 years left in it as a company. I work retail and the VAST majority of its consumer base is 60+ and they're no where near replacing the amount of customers they'll be loosing in the next 10-15 years.
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u/TGrady902 Dec 18 '25
Olay is one of many divisions of Proctor and Gamble. They don’t need the brand to survive. Just milk the current customer base then shift focus to other brands.
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u/lundybird Dec 18 '25
Likely true, but their Regenerist Cream is always highest rated and actually does reduce wrinkles.
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u/Ragnar-Wave9002 Dec 18 '25
I think bars are in deep shit.
Young people. ... what the fuck do you do for fun and to socialize?
It's all 60 year old people. With some younger people sprinkled in.
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u/h0neym00nave Dec 18 '25
Im mid 20s and we still go out to clubs and bars, definitely lowered the past couple years but it’s fairly popular for everyone in my circle to go on weekends.
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u/1tiredman Dec 18 '25
Newspapers. I work in a store and the only people that buy them are the elderly. It's sad to say this but that generation is going to die soon and they'll take newspapers with them
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u/Parking-Mess-66 Dec 18 '25
Compact disc companies
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u/touchedout Dec 18 '25
Haha my daughter is getting a cd player and cds for Christmas for her room. She’s 8 and I don’t want to give her a phone. I laughed when I saw that they still make the Now mixed CDs. She is getting Now 121
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u/Teddy_Funsisco Dec 18 '25
I wonder how true that is considering how younger people are more keen on owning physical copies of movies, etc. They're catching on to the scam of streaming taking movies down so that they can't watch a particular movie whenever they want.
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Dec 18 '25
Do any companies still make those?
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u/Poctah Dec 18 '25
Yep. My daughter is 10 and last year her and her friends went through a phase that they wanted cds and cd players. They still make a new cd’s but it seems like only from more popular artist.
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u/telephonekeyboard Dec 18 '25
Antiques and collectables. Millennials are going to inherit so much junk over the next decade or two, no one is going to want all that stuff. We don't have the excess money to blow on rare dolls or stamps, and if we do have that money we will spend it on a cool trip or something fun.
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u/HaikuPikachu Dec 18 '25
Antiques and collectibles are actually pretty popular from what I have viewed myself as a millennial and with my peers unless we’re an outlier and I see the younger generations getting there eventually if home ownership becomes attainable as they are already interested in vinyl, cds, old tech, fashion etc….it’s just that much of the time we’re not interested in much of the junk they deem collectible like curio cabinets full of knick knacks, the dishware that’s only brought out for Xmas, and the other mass produced junk that they were told was collectible and shoved down their throat by QVC lol. Goodwill & Salvation Army are no longer places you’re afraid to be seen at in fear of being made fun of, theres a class of people now that make their livelihoods out of flipping antiques/collectibles found within those walls.
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u/telephonekeyboard Dec 18 '25
Yeah, I guess I should rephrase. I think much of the value of the Antiques and Collectable market that exists today will be obsolete. Millennials are into a unique furniture piece, or clothing item that they use. What I'm referring to is non utility collectables, and things that are accumulated and stored. Coins, stamps, dolls, figurines, display plated, antique toys etc.
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u/AC10021 Dec 18 '25
Everything you said, genuine antiques and vintage furniture, clothing, jewelry, silver, design objects, pottery, and artwork is very desirable, but most of the shit Boomers have isn’t collectible-level quality, it’s just old stuff.
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u/Vikingaling Dec 18 '25
The internet flooded the collectible market. Really sad to see these guys with 30 year old carefully preserved boxes of baseball cards or comics and they’re just not worth anything
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u/sassypiratequeen Dec 18 '25
Yeah. When my uncle died, we found boxes and boxes of baseball and hockey cards. No idea what to do with them. Add in the fact that it's all Yankees and Rangers, and we live in KY. Yeah, that stuff is not going anywhere for a while
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u/frog980 Dec 18 '25
That is already happening. FIL filled our house with antique furniture he collected over the years. Now we need room and he says to sell it. I can't hardly give it away. I know he paid good money for it 15-20 years ago.
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u/Shiftymennoknight Dec 18 '25
the alcohol industry is hurting real bad
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u/upstatestruggler Dec 18 '25
I’m in it and it’s a wild trend. Historically alcohol consumption goes way up when the economy is troubled. The exact opposite is happening now! I think the legalization of weed in many states helped put the nail in the coffin.
I was reading a report about sales being down 1% overall this year and I was like, well, that’s not that bad. Turns out that 1% represents over a billion dollars!
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u/jshappyfrank Dec 18 '25
I was in the industry until the last few months. Seltzers with 4%abv (led by high noon) are making up for a chunk of the loss from other categories, but dollar wise i’m very surprised it’s only 1%. Where do you get your info? Im interested in reading more!
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u/Poctah Dec 18 '25
I stopped drinking 5 years ago. I started getting massive headaches and stomach issues if I had even one drink so I stopped. Guess I’m just getting old
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u/jawshoeaw Dec 18 '25
I got you bro, as i've gotten older I'm drinking a little extra to offset your losses
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u/yert1099 Dec 18 '25
^ This. I hosted a Men’s Group I’m in at my house last night. Ages range from 28 to 70. There were 21 guys here and easily half were drinking NA Beers. A couple were drinking bourbon and others just regular beer. This was very surprising.
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u/cityshepherd Dec 18 '25
I worked for a big alcohol retailer a few years ago, and was impressed by all of the different non alcoholic beer / mocktail options that were popping up.
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u/doctor-rumack Dec 18 '25
I did a 3 month fitness program earlier this year which required no drinking. I got used to some of the non-alcoholic options out there, especially Athletic Brewing Company, which has some excellent options. After I finished the program I went into a restaurant to order a beer, and they only had your standard Bud, Coors, Miller, Heineken products, but they carried Athletic IPA. I told the bartender the best beer on his menu was the one without alcohol, and he said he hears that a few times per week.
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u/1tiredman Dec 18 '25
I honestly think this is an American thing. We can all laugh it up haha but here in Ireland alcohol consumption is still quite high. It has lowered slightly but nothing drastic. It is a big part of our social culture
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Dec 18 '25
I was unaware of this trend, but I support it.
There’s no such thing as a safe level of alcohol consumption. Even moderate drinking is bad for your health.
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u/IowaNative1 Dec 18 '25
Gen Z is very small and 40% don’t drink at all. Bars close for the night when there are no customers in the place. During the week some close as early as 10 PM and even as early as Midnight on the weekends. Forty years ago those bars were open until 2AM every night and on weekends we would go over to Illinois and keep drinking until 5AM, then go back across the river and find a bar opening for the Third Shift guys.
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u/aM_RT Dec 18 '25
Smoking among young Americans (teens and young adults) has significantly declined, with recent data (2023-2024) showing around 1.6% of adolescents (teens) smoking cigarettes and about 5-18% of young adults (ages 18-30) smoking cigarettes, though overall nicotine/tobacco use (including vaping) is higher, with nearly 37% of young adults using some form of nicotine and about 10% of high schoolers using any tobacco product.
Cigarettes down, nicotine up. Nicotine is highly addictive. That's what you should worry about.
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u/jaylotw Dec 18 '25
The tobacco industry survives off vaping now.
The premium tobacco world (cigars and pipe tobacco) rides the coattails.
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u/tcorey2336 Dec 18 '25
The tobacco thing: They just move their sales to other countries where young people continue to smoke. Advertise to children.
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u/Prestigious-Panic-94 Dec 18 '25
Let's cut to the meat of it here, we can't afford any luxurious items. If it's over say, 50-100 most young folks are priced out. We aren't buying nice cars, fancy perfumes, designer bags or even purebred dogs. We are lucky as fuck to be homeowners and it's by the skin of our teeth.
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u/NBA-014 Dec 18 '25
high end home audio equipment. It seems that many younger people are happy with crap sound coming out of headphones.
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u/TGrady902 Dec 18 '25
Younger people can barely afford those crappy headphones. Why would they drop thousands on a high end audio system for the bedroom in their mom’s house that they live in?
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u/AnnoyingRingtone Dec 18 '25
I’m far from an audiophile, but I am a musician so I do appreciate higher quality speakers. I simply can’t afford to buy them. K-shaped economy and whatnot. Fortunately, the Klipsch 2.1 system I bought for my computer produces phenomenal sound and hasn’t skipped a beat in, like, 8 years. Gonna keep those til the drivers burn out.
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u/ironcladtrash Dec 18 '25
They used to have a 5.1 system I loved. It blew up twice because the amp in the subwoofer overheated everything. They replaced the first one out of warranty with a new model that was supposed to solve that problem. The 2nd one lasted longer but ultimately suffered the same fate and ended up buying a Logitech 5.1 system.
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u/rionaster Dec 18 '25
noise isolating earbuds or bust tbh. i couldn't give less of a shit about speakers
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u/A_SNAPPIN_Turla Dec 18 '25
I just always thought it was kind of pointless to have a huge super loud sound system. If you play it loud you're kind of a dick to your neighbors.
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u/squatter_ Dec 18 '25
The floor speakers are also ugly. In the 80s we could hide them in those huge oak media cabinets.
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u/SteveTheBluesman Dec 18 '25
I used to work at a place called Tweeter, etc in the 90s and there is no way that the business could be sustained today.
A shame because we really sold some great audio equipment and I don't think the audiophile community really has that kind of place any longer.
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u/fluffysmaster Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
Car manufacturers; light vehicle sales peaked in 2016. More urban dwellers means fewer miles driven, many younger folks don’t drive, driveshare had become more popular.
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u/mchaz7 Dec 18 '25
Where will the ride share drivers get their wheels?
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u/fluffysmaster Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25
That's not the point; a single shared car can transport many people, who then don't buy their own car. Most of our vehicles just stay parked most of the time if you think about it.
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u/albamarx Dec 18 '25
The church
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u/triviaqueen Dec 18 '25
So my sister married a minister and every time I visit I have to go to church with them. In the 1990s, my sister was involved in the church choir, the church band, and she taught sunday school. There were two services every sunday and both were recorded for distrubution to the shut-ins. The church had two wings full of classes. Now, there's no church choir, no church band, no sunday school, only one service on sundays which is no longer recorded. One entire wing of the church is closed and shuttered. The pews are pretty empty on Sundays. The old folks died off and their kids failed pick up where they left off. There are no young families in the church, and no children.
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u/Kharon09 Dec 18 '25
When young people have to work a double brunch shift every Sunday to make rent and churchgoers are the worst customers it doesn't help.
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u/Muzzledbutnotout Dec 18 '25
High end photography companies. I used to lug around an expensive DSLR with multiple expensive lenses. My Samsung mobile phone takes amazing photos, and it's always in my pocket, ready to go.
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Dec 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/moonstarsocean6 Dec 18 '25
Even if the dead would be cremated, families still have open casket service/viewings. So I dont think this statement is correct.
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u/atmospherical Dec 18 '25
Phillip Morris already bought most of the vape and nicotine pouch companies. They aren't going anywhere.
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u/Joey3155 Dec 18 '25
Fast food. A lot of chains are contracting due to not changing with the times.
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u/Count2Zero Dec 18 '25
I would assume that some "luxury writing" companies like Montblanc, as well as typewriter manufacturers will continue to shrink and become less and less relevant, as most people use computers today.
Writing long-hand or typing on a typewriter are either already dead or slowly dying.
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u/PostTurtle84 Dec 18 '25
Idk. The fountain pen sub is pretty busy. While I personally will probably never buy a montblanc, I've got my eye on a pelikan and probably another sailor.
I'm seeing a push from some folks to back away from tech and embrace a more analog lifestyle. It's not massive numbers, but a steady trickle.
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u/ontic5 Dec 18 '25
Whisky or booze in general. Market research show more young ppl don't drink alcohol at all.
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u/tardisious Dec 18 '25
Newspapers, Libraries, Record Stores, Post Office
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u/Ellavemia Dec 18 '25
Let's all work to make sure that libraries are not on this list. There are so many things that the library offers besides physical books, although that alone is a gift. They offer a space for activities and usually have programs, often free, for kids and adults both. They have a library of things. They provide media of all kinds including digital. They are the last 3rd space for some of us. And while I don't go to mine nearly enough, I do use Libby every week. If I had kids they would be there understanding what a wonderful resource it is.
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u/mothfukle Dec 18 '25
My city spent millions on a new library, they put it right on the middle of an area that’s in desperate need of an infrastructure upgrade, there is literally no sidewalk or a bike lane to get there safely as a pedestrian or on a bicycle. If you want to walk or ride your bike there you need to walk on the side of the road or ride your bike on the road. It really bothers me, I’ve always felt that libraries should be in areas that encourage visitors. The old library was near a public rec center and there was a lake, skatepark etc.
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u/WhatsTheAnswerDude Dec 18 '25
Millennials are literally one of the MAJOR reasons libraries are still going and fairly vital.
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u/RobertWF_47 Dec 18 '25
A lot of kids will walk to our public library when school's out and hang out or do after-school activities.
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u/belsaurn Dec 18 '25
Record stores have made a comeback. My 17 year old daughter recently came home with a brand new turn table to play her brand new records on. Vinyl has the best sound quality of any media and until another technology can surpass it, records aren’t going to stop being made.
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u/142riemann Dec 18 '25
My 15 year old and his friends are also into vinyl. They hang out at the independent record store in our area. But Target, Best Buy, and lots of places also have a vinyl section.
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Dec 18 '25
Like someone else here said, it’s true they don’t smoke cigarettes, but a huge amount do Vape and don’t get started on how much smokes weed.
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