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Gen X-ers Snubbed on Black Friday & US Poverty Line is $140K?

27 min episode · 2 min read
·
Gen X-ers Snubbed

Episode

27 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Relationships, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Generational shopping patterns: Gen Z and millennials concentrate 40% and 32% of holiday shopping around Black Friday respectively, driven by social media deal discovery on TikTok and Instagram, while older generations delay purchases until mid-December traditional shopping periods.
  • Gen X market opportunity: Gen X shoppers aged 45-60 represent untapped retail potential as only 5% of brand influencer spending targets them despite 92% using social media daily, 28% active on TikTok, and willingness to spend more than last year on gifts for both aging parents and children.
  • AI shopping behavior: AI-driven retail site traffic surged 805% year-over-year, but only 9% use AI for gift inspiration while 72% prefer in-store browsing. Shoppers primarily leverage AI to cross-reference and verify deal prices rather than generate creative gift ideas.
  • Poverty measurement debate: Michael Green argues modern poverty threshold should be $136,000 annually for a family of four versus official $32,000, calculating housing at 35-45% of budget, childcare 20-40%, and healthcare 15-25%, though economists criticize using averages rather than minimums and measuring comfort over survival.

What It Covers

Black Friday retail sales jumped 4.1% with online spending reaching $11.8 billion, driven by Gen Z shoppers while Gen X remains overlooked. Discussion includes debate over whether US poverty threshold should be $136,000 versus official $32,000.

Key Questions Answered

  • Generational shopping patterns: Gen Z and millennials concentrate 40% and 32% of holiday shopping around Black Friday respectively, driven by social media deal discovery on TikTok and Instagram, while older generations delay purchases until mid-December traditional shopping periods.
  • Gen X market opportunity: Gen X shoppers aged 45-60 represent untapped retail potential as only 5% of brand influencer spending targets them despite 92% using social media daily, 28% active on TikTok, and willingness to spend more than last year on gifts for both aging parents and children.
  • AI shopping behavior: AI-driven retail site traffic surged 805% year-over-year, but only 9% use AI for gift inspiration while 72% prefer in-store browsing. Shoppers primarily leverage AI to cross-reference and verify deal prices rather than generate creative gift ideas.
  • Poverty measurement debate: Michael Green argues modern poverty threshold should be $136,000 annually for a family of four versus official $32,000, calculating housing at 35-45% of budget, childcare 20-40%, and healthcare 15-25%, though economists criticize using averages rather than minimums and measuring comfort over survival.

Notable Moment

Google DeepMind's AI hurricane forecasting model outperformed traditional physics-based systems by 50% margin at five-day predictions, accurately forecasting Hurricane Melissa's intensification to Category 5 one week ahead while government models failed, marking potential revolution in weather prediction using historical pattern analysis.

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Episode Transcript

Ready for AI? First things first, you should get your data foundation in order. That's where Quest software comes in. Quest helps customers create trusted AI ready data, manage Microsoft Active Directory with less risk, and protect identities from ransomware. While everyone else talks about AI possibilities, Quest Software helps customers get their data ready for AI and build a foundation for future success. Learn more at quest.com/brew. That's quest.com/brew. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, Gen z was feeling the love on Black Friday. Gen x, not so much. Then should the poverty line actually be four times higher than the official threshold? It's Monday, December 1. Let's ride. Oof. This Monday hits hard. Hope you all had a relaxing Thanksgiving break and sending strength in your upcoming attempt to dig out of the mountain of emails you said you'd circle back to after the holiday. Today is the December, which means it's time for the annual game of Whamageddon. What's that you ask? It's an annual contest in which players try to avoid hearing last Christmas by Wham from December 1 through Christmas Eve. You're gonna wanna stay away from department stores, holiday markets, cars playing on the radio, or really any outdoor event in general because there are some devious people out there. Two years ago, the DJ at a soccer stadium in England played last Christmas to a crowd of more than 7,000 people with the explicit intention of causing them to lose Whamageddon. I legit almost already lost, Neil, landed late last night in Newark, and the plane started blasting Wham again and struck right. I was I was leaving, and my heart dropped, but I looked at my watch, and I was still just before midnight. Even if I had been past midnight, though, I hadn't cleared customs yet, so I was gonna invoke some sort of international waters rule right there. But I think one thing to keep in mind, all royalties from last Christmas go to charity thanks to Wham's decision back in 1984. So even if you do lose, you didn't lose because you're supporting charity. And now a word from LinkedIn ads. Toby, what do you search for? Deeper meaning in my interpersonal relationships, a sense of belongingness I haven't experienced since childhood, and a really good pretzel bun. That is very deep, Toby. But what I was going to say was, what do you search for in professionals when doing b to b advertising? Because with LinkedIn ads, you can target your buyers by job title, industry, company roles, seniority, skills, and company revenue so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. I see. Well, in that case, it's worth mentioning LinkedIn Ads has a network of over 1,000,000,000 professionals and a 130,000,000 decision makers. Plus, LinkedIn Ads generates the highest b to b, that's business to business, return on ad spend of all online ad networks. Spend $250 on …

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  • by Google DeepMind

    Google DeepMind's AI hurricane forecasting model outperformed traditional physics-based systems by 50% margin at five-day predictions, accurately forecasting Hurricane Melissa's intensification to Category 5 one week ahead while government models failed

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