It’s a snowy day here in New Jersey, in fact, so snowy that I am working in my kitchen at home.  It’s a perfect day to sift through the mountains of material that we have been collecting for MILLENNIALS At HOME, AIM’s in-depth look at consumers now in their Twenties.  This group already has more than $350 billion in spending power and that is going up every day as more and more young people enter the work force.  We’ll be doing more primary research over the next month, but even the materials gathered so far make for some fascinating reading.  I thought I knew a lot about this generation since I have three Millennial kids, but I am learning a lot.  For example, I knew that they love to shop online, but did you know that Millennials are also three times as likely to buy from an infomercial as someone my age (Boomers)?  Or that, even though they love to shop online resources (like amazon.com) for many items, they rarely consider it for kitchen items and are 25 times more likely to shop at a discount store like Walmart or Target.  (These stats came from some research AIM conducted late in 2009.)  Stay tuned as we delve deeper into these issues and continue to report on our findings…

 

Also, be sure to stop by the Design Center Theater at the International Home & Housewares Show on Monday March 15^th where I will be previewing MILLENNIALS At HOME at 11:30 AM.  

1 Comments

by Suniti Varma on Apr 01 2010 11:47 pm

While India eyes a GDP growth rate of nine per cent plus in the next five years, there is still no answer to the housing woes of the economically weaker sections of the society.

According to an official in the Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, whether it is West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra, most states across the country will experience a massive shortage of over 11 million dwelling units for the urban poor in 2007.

Maharashtra will have a cumulative shortage of 3.72 million housing units this year. "Over 95 per cent housing shortage is related to the economically weaker sections (EWS)," a senior official in Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry was quoted as saying by a daily.

The shortage of housing in 2007 at the national level stands at 24.71 million out of which 21.78 million shortage relates to the economically weak people, the report said, adding that in the category of lower income group, there will be shortage of 2.89 million housing units.

According to the National Building Organisation (NBO), an agency under the Housing and Poverty Alleviation Ministry, there will be an estimated 0.04 million shortage of housing in the middle and high-income category in 2007.

Cheaper houses is the need of the hour in India. Tata Group has taken the initiative recently in this direction.