God Bless the Gen-xers

            God Bless the Gen –xers and Millennial! You don’t hear people say that everyday, do you?

            I ordered an outdoor thermometer yesterday, so my wife would know what “ensemble” to wear while venturing out into the rabid weather of…Oh wait…we’re in the Central Coast, aren’t we?- The Most Convenient Weather in the Country. This isn’t Chicago, San Francisco or…(shudder) Buffalo…So why the Big Concern about the exterior temp (esp. when it’ll likely be 25 F higher than the temp in the morning in a couple hours or so!). Who knows?…and that is how we arrived at this thermometer.

            Anyway this cute little piece of teck arrived today. I remember being slightly impressed. I mean, I only ordered it yesterday. Then I realized why and how this happened.

            The Gen-xers and Millennials demanded and then got “immediate gratification”…Okay next day gratification (“wherever service is available”)…which is almost as good. Look for same day (again “wherever services are available”) via drone drop off “coming soon to a town near you”!

            Top Gun is coming again to a streaming service near you ( “I feel the Need for Speed!” is the famous quote from that movie, though why they decided to remake it 30 years later with  virtually the same cast, is a friggin’ mystery). And that need for speed is the defining trait of the Millennials. They literally can hold the whole world in their hands and have done so from a very early age! They are the drivers causing everything to speed up, so hold on tight, because the bullet train has left the station!

            The advances in technology that the “Y” generation have fostered has shifted the landscape and influenced customer behaviors, changing the world gen Xers were raised in and forever changing their expectations. (Wait in line for coffee? Who’s got time for that?)  This is probably where the McDonald’s (et al) “apps” came into life. As if fast food isn’t fast enough, now you can order your Big Mac, medium fries and a shake while at a stoplight (don’t let the cops see this!) and pick it up minutes later all without actually stopping. That’s good, right? I’m not sure, but it is what it is.

            And once a customer experiences a solution to a problem they didn’t realize they had, this “solution” becomes the benchmark.

            This “oft maligned” group was referred to as slackers. Slackers? They invented start-ups, and lots of technology…flashes mobs and twitter. They grew up watching fantasy shows like “Night Rider” and saw what technology might do…slackers? Maybe not…Maybe we’re talking about a paradigm shift here and we didn’t even feel the ‘Quake (BTW, “3.3”, but all precincts have not reported in yet).            This group has caused great benefits to be bestowed upon the rest of us.          They demanded… (insert your desire du jour here) and it was delivered.

            Should the rest of us expect any less?! This is the dawn of limitless commerce.

            And, “Limitless commerce” means brands are shedding a great deal of their brick-and-mortar traditional in-store experiences and instead – or in addition to- they are offering opportunities to purchase on virtually any device you might own- hang onto your credit card!! (maybe get an oven mitt to hold it to protect yourself from the frequent swiping/ waving “friction”!).

            I can shop from my TV! More and more brands are meeting their customers “halfway” on their phones, video games, TVs, tablets, watches -and this is only the beginning. There will be ever more (intrusive?) opportunities in all of our daily lives, and so far, speaking only for myself, it’s been a (mostly) welcome approach despite the creepy feeling that I get when I glance at something somewhere on the web and a minute later, I see an ad for it at a great price. To be honest sometimes, just to mess with the ‘bots, I’ll look at stuff in which I have no interest just to see what the algorithms come up with a minute or two later…But I only do this when I’m bored…which means lately, this is my full time occupation (HAH!)

            God bless the Millennial and gen-X’ers! Because of their need to have whatever they ordered ASAP, I can get my GoPro bikeCam 280B “mark a” quickly so I can film my bikes rides (which are as riveting as being cajoled into watching an impromptu slide show of grandkids on an acquaintance’s iPhone 10), and, so now you can “enjoy” my rides too! (yay?)

            AND, I’ll know how warm it is before going out to ride- because I have my new outdoor thermometer!