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Speaker 1: Stacy Vanixsmith here from Everybody's Business. Today, we're sharing an

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Speaker 1: episode from one of our favorite Bloomberg podcasts, The Big Take.

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Speaker 1: I spoke with David Gura about BusinessWeek's Jen Alpha series

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Speaker 1: and why they're the generation we should keep our attention on.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back with a new episode of Everybody's Business

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Speaker 1: this Friday.

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.

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Speaker 3: What is going on with Jen Alpho.

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Speaker 1: I'm genuinely terrified for this next generation of children.

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Speaker 3: There is no before for them. There is no analog

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Speaker 3: childhood or a memory of one. These children have access

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Speaker 3: to so much media and so much content consumption.

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Speaker 1: I decided to work at a summer campus year, and

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Speaker 1: I didn't understand the severity of the brain rot.

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Speaker 4: Stacey, I'm hearing griping from one generation about the generation

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Speaker 4: it's following it. This is a time honored routine. This

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Speaker 4: has happened generation after generation after When did all of

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Speaker 4: this start?

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Speaker 1: Okay, boomer has been happening for thousands of years.

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Speaker 4: Yes, we have this with Generation X generation. Why here

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Speaker 4: we are they're now grousing about Generation Alpha? What is

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Speaker 4: being critiqued or criticized among this the youngest generation.

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Speaker 1: It gets very vitriolic when you start looking into it.

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Speaker 1: If you go on social media and TikTok and things

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Speaker 1: like that, you will see a lot of teachers, camp

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Speaker 1: counselors really complaining about how unruly the Alphas are. I

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Speaker 1: think seventh grade they are still performed on the fourth

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Speaker 1: grade level.

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Speaker 3: Your kids cannot read, they cannot write.

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Speaker 5: Jen Alpha students are raised in a world that tells

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Speaker 5: them that it's okay to be as nihilistic and individualistic

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Speaker 5: as possible, that they don't have to care about anything

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Speaker 5: or any one.

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Speaker 3: I need to ask millennials, why are your kids so awful?

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Speaker 4: I got to ask you, how deep into the algorithm

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Speaker 4: did you have to go to find this level of criticism.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty out there on the circus. Yes, I feel

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Speaker 1: like there's an issue of the normal criticisms of a

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Speaker 1: younger generation, and it's now amplified by data. Also, the

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Speaker 1: Alphas are just about to start entering the workforce. They

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Speaker 1: have a big leg up with AI, with technology, with

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Speaker 1: social media and things like that, so I think there's

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Speaker 1: maybe some fear of their presence in the workforce too.

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Speaker 4: And that is what you've written about, that is their superpower.

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Speaker 4: When it comes to their technological facility.

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we are all wondering how AI is

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Speaker 1: going to transform our workplace, and these kids are going

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Speaker 1: to be in a much better position than certainly I am.

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Speaker 1: You know, the Alphas are digital natives, they're social media natives.

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Speaker 1: They've grown up sometimes inside of virtual worlds as well

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Speaker 1: as in the real world, and so navigating these two

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Speaker 1: worlds is not going to be the challenge for them

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Speaker 1: that it is like for me. The other thing about

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Speaker 1: the Alphas is they're about to become consumers. They're about

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Speaker 1: to start earning their own money, but they already command

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Speaker 1: more money than people their age typically have in the past.

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Speaker 1: They're apparently directly responsible for one hundred billion dollars worth

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Speaker 1: of spending, which is extraordinary.

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Speaker 4: One hundred billion dollars in annual spending in the US

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Speaker 4: alone is attributed to this generation. Forgive me for just

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Speaker 4: being astounded by that.

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Speaker 1: It is astounding. But also they apparently have more influence

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Speaker 1: over how their families spend money than a lot of

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Speaker 1: previous generations. So they are dictating everything from the cars

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Speaker 1: their families drive, to the trips their families take, to

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Speaker 1: the streaming services they sign up for the Alphas are

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Speaker 1: just present in the economy in a way that previous

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Speaker 1: generations were not at their age.

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Speaker 4: I'm David Gura, and this is the Big Take from

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Speaker 4: Bloomberg News Today. On the show, I'm talking to Bloomberg

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Speaker 4: BusinessWeek senior writer and co host of the Everybody's Business

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Speaker 4: podcast Stacy Vanocksmith about Generation Alpha. Who are they, why

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Speaker 4: are they making waves before many of them are out

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Speaker 4: of middle school, and how is their entrepreneurship and spending

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Speaker 4: reshaping the retail landscape. What are the date parameters that

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Speaker 4: we're talking about here?

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Speaker 1: Well, first, David, I do want to acknowledge that in

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Speaker 1: a certain way, you know a lot more about Generation

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Speaker 1: Alpha than I do. As the parent of three Alpha.

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Speaker 4: I have three alphas, I said to one of our producers.

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Speaker 4: I'm unsure if any of them identifies as an Alpha.

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Speaker 4: I will follow up and ask afterward. But yes, born

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Speaker 4: between What are the date parameters for Generation Alpha?

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Speaker 1: Yes, so there is some disagreement, but generally speaking, Generation

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Speaker 1: Alphas were born between twenty ten and twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, okay, so basically between the ages of

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Speaker 1: one and sixteen years old. It is the largest generation

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Speaker 1: that's ever existed. It's about twenty five percent of the population.

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Speaker 1: And I think part of the concerns about the generation

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Speaker 1: are actually not coming from a nefarious place, because a

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Speaker 1: lot of these kids had huge milestones happened during the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: During lockdown, you know, scientists and sociologists are worried about

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Speaker 1: the effect of the pandemic, and then they underwent such

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Speaker 1: a massive transition, you know, being home all the time

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Speaker 1: and then now back in school, and so a lot

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Speaker 1: of the concern and examination of this generation happened because

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Speaker 1: I think people were unsure what the effects of that were.

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Speaker 1: I do think the genesis of a lot of the

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Speaker 1: kind of worry, which has of course transitioned into criticism,

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Speaker 1: came from that sacy.

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Speaker 4: What is different about the way these kids have grown

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Speaker 4: up or I guess are growing up compared to past generations.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think one of the big things is screens,

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Speaker 1: because during the pandemic we were all home, a lot

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Speaker 1: of socializing education, All of that happened necessarily in a

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Speaker 1: lot of cases entirely through screens. Add to that sort

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Speaker 1: of the growing world of social media, the growing world

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Speaker 1: of games like Roadblocks and You've got a generation that

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Speaker 1: sort of moves between worlds in a way that other

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Speaker 1: generations don't, So I think there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: worries about that. Also attention spans with the screens, there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of worries about alpha's brains. Essentially they're

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Speaker 1: reading comprehension, their ability to interact with people outside of

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Speaker 1: screens like in real life. Also their ability to respect

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Speaker 1: authority interact in social situations that are offline. So these

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Speaker 1: are some of the worries and criticisms about the alphas.

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Speaker 1: And then also there are comments about their self discipline. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that there may be a little less disciplined. Apparently some

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Speaker 1: millennial parents engage in gentle parenting, which created a lot

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Speaker 1: of skepticism.

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Speaker 4: We don't have to get into that. Now, there's a

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Speaker 4: level of tech fluency here. This generation had to do

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Speaker 4: a lot online during the pandemic, and that's led to

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Speaker 4: this kind of early awareness of what's trendy. It's made

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Speaker 4: them this economic force.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so a lot of these kids, I mean, they

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Speaker 1: have a lot of the habits and tendencies that kids

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Speaker 1: always have, you know, starting little businesses, making things, creating,

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Speaker 1: but they can do that on these platforms where they have.

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Speaker 2: This ease of use.

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Speaker 4: So we're talking about like roadblocks and other virtually.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, or even Instagram things like that where they

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Speaker 1: can make something and the world can see it, where

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Speaker 1: they can record something. They can sing or dance or

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Speaker 1: all the things that little kids have always done, but

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Speaker 1: they have this potentially international audience.

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Speaker 4: Transcends the neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: It transcends the neighborhood, it transcends the state, the country,

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Speaker 1: so they can really build something incredibly fast. I think

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Speaker 1: they think bigger as a result of that.

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Speaker 3: Hi, my name is Riley. This is my dad John.

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Speaker 4: You talked to a few of these folks. One is

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Speaker 4: Riley Peterson, a sixteen year old in Maine.

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Speaker 3: We own Gunnar and Lucks together. I'm the manager.

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Speaker 4: App tell us a bit about Riley. Who is Riley?

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Speaker 4: How'd she get her start as an entrepreneur?

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Speaker 1: So? Riley got her start as an entrepreneur when she

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Speaker 1: was five and she was making jewelry out of these

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Speaker 1: little plastic toy animals that she had.

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Speaker 3: So I didn't have much truly growing up, two dads in.

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Speaker 6: All, we just didn't have a lot of jewelry and stuff.

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Speaker 6: We just didn't think about it.

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Speaker 3: So they were like, hey, friends, can you get jewelry? Jewelery?

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Speaker 5: Hello?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, some friends brought over like a box of jewelry

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Speaker 6: and she sort of went through it.

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Speaker 3: I was like, oh, like any of this, this is

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Speaker 3: all horrendous. I need my own stuff, thank you very much.

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Speaker 6: You know, at the time, we were working on some

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Speaker 6: stuff in the house, so we had pliers and so

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Speaker 6: I was just kind of teaching her how to use pliers.

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Speaker 3: So I took my dad's tools and like, thank you. This, yes, things,

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Speaker 3: this is this, got what I wanted.

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Speaker 6: We had a bunch of these little plastic animals, so

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Speaker 6: we put those up onto the necklaces and I'm like,

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Speaker 6: you know what.

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Speaker 3: I have too much stuff. I need to sell it

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Speaker 3: at my lemonade.

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Speaker 1: Stand, which is just a very typical kid thing. But

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Speaker 1: her dad took a couple of pictures of this and

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Speaker 1: posted it on Instagram, and her business absolutely took off.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I know, right, what happened to my lemonade stand?

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Speaker 1: Nothing like that.

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Speaker 4: I will tell you, dam oh your parents for the

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Speaker 4: cought get it off the ground.

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Speaker 1: Yes yeah, I still owe back pay on the lemons.

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Speaker 4: How quickly did this happen. What do you know about

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Speaker 4: the kind of the speed with which this turned from

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Speaker 4: that a lemonade dan where she was selling crafts and

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Speaker 4: dio this much bigger thing.

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Speaker 1: I think it wasn't even a year before Barney's contacted

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Speaker 1: them and said, let's have a meeting. We want to

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Speaker 1: talk with you about a partnership.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I remember you were in dance class and then

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Speaker 6: Barney's New York called, like.

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Speaker 3: The middle of ballet. My dad like sets us like,

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Speaker 3: hey this Barney's can you come down? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: It was pretty neat, and then she started getting press,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden it was this kind of

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Speaker 1: fun international brand of jewelry for kids essentially, which is

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Speaker 1: a really smart idea. But I think it happened on

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Speaker 1: a scale that it never would have happened before. And

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Speaker 1: now it's about ten years later, and she's done partnerships

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Speaker 1: with Jay Crewe and all of these huge brands, and

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Speaker 1: she very much considers herself like a partner in this

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Speaker 1: business with her dad, and her dad very much considers

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Speaker 1: her a full partner too.

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Speaker 4: How unique a story is this, How does this what

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Speaker 4: Riley has done, what she's doing, fit into this broader

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Speaker 4: conversation about Jen Alpha as a force in business and

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Speaker 4: a force in spending as well.

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Speaker 1: She's certainly an exceptional case, but I will say that

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Speaker 1: she's less exceptional than she would have been twenty years ago.

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Speaker 4: After the break why One researcher says the future is

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Speaker 4: bright for Gen Alpha and is their economic spending power

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Speaker 4: really here to stay? Stacey, you talked to the woman

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Speaker 4: who's written the book on generational for or at least

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Speaker 4: a book on Generation Alpha. What did she tell you

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Speaker 4: about this generation?

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Speaker 1: Yes, her name is Ashley Fell. She's the author of

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Speaker 1: Generation Alpha, Understanding Our Children and Helping Them Thrive, And

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Speaker 1: she had great things to say about this general Ch're positive,

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Speaker 1: very positive, the opposite of what we were hearing from teachers,

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Speaker 1: although she did acknowledge those issues exist, but she really,

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Speaker 1: through studying this generation, sees a lot of extraordinary traits

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Speaker 1: in them as well, including teamwork, empathy, honesty.

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Speaker 2: They're almost at an older psyche at a younger age.

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Speaker 1: She said, they're exceptionally creative, they think really big and

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Speaker 1: sort of across disciplines, and she thinks they're quite a

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Speaker 1: special generation in a lot of ways. Partially because you know,

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Speaker 1: we're right now we're in a moment where we're all

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Speaker 1: pretty siloed and where you know, globalization, free trade, a

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Speaker 1: lot of that has gone away a little bit. She

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Speaker 1: thinks the alphas will unquestionably bring that back because they're

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Speaker 1: so connected to each other, they're connected to world events.

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Speaker 2: Because of the technology that they consume and the way

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Speaker 2: that it's presented, they're more likely almost to know what's

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Speaker 2: going on across the world, maybe than their local neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: In good ways and bad kids under eight now spend

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Speaker 1: a couple hours a day on average looking at screens.

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Speaker 1: By age four, about sixty percent of kids own it

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Speaker 1: tablets wow sage four, Yeah, age four, And so they

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Speaker 1: are consumers in an exceptionally sophisticated way. More than two

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Speaker 1: thirds of alpha's own a luxury product by age ten.

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Speaker 4: And that's what that's a a handbag perfume. What are

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Speaker 4: we talking about here?

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Speaker 1: Yes, and yes. For for female alphas, it tends to

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Speaker 1: be a lot of cosmetics, a lot of skincare, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of anti aging.

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Speaker 4: Skincare page of four.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, like wrinkle you know, the sort of twelve

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Speaker 1: step skincare. Korean skincare has become a huge thing very

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Speaker 1: much fueled by the alpha's. Sephora is packed full of alphas.

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Speaker 5: You think Sephora, you think, you know Gen z's and

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Speaker 5: millennial women and other generations, But it was populated by

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Speaker 5: you know, thirteen to fifteen year old gen alphas who

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Speaker 5: are buying sophisticated retinal products aimed at millennium you know.

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Speaker 2: So it was this kind of I think that was

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Speaker 2: almost like upaging in real time.

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Speaker 1: A lot of Alpha boys are also into skincare. This

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Speaker 1: has become a big thing. And she said there was

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Speaker 1: a big trend among boys for very very high end

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Speaker 1: colognes for young boys. They would get the in very

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Speaker 1: rural places, but they are all tapped into these global

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Speaker 1: trends and they're getting very expensive colognes.

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Speaker 4: But to be clear, here at Stacey, whose money are

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Speaker 4: most of the kids, And they are kids in this

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Speaker 4: generation spending I guess in some cases theirs, but often.

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Speaker 1: They're spending your money. They're spending your money. They are

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Speaker 1: basically wielding, for the most part enormous power over how

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Speaker 1: their families spend. They are bringing their own concerns into

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Speaker 1: a lot of family purchases, things like environmental concerns, global concerns,

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Speaker 1: political concerns. They're raising the awareness within their families, so

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Speaker 1: things like food and streaming services. Cars.

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Speaker 4: Have you been told that's happy with it?

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Speaker 1: No, Well, this is very normal tough economy. It is

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Speaker 1: a tough economy right now. And also trips and vacations,

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Speaker 1: which apparently is sort of a mix between kids raising

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Speaker 1: concerns and desires to go places. Also being much more

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Speaker 1: aware of places to go than previous generations were. They're like,

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Speaker 1: I want to go here, I saw it online, things

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Speaker 1: like that, and you know, just holding more sway over

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Speaker 1: families than you know, certainly I did. My parents never

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Speaker 1: resked my input on where I wanted to go. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you were ever asked your input, never exactly.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think just like the level of lifestyle

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Speaker 1: and cosmopolitans is huge among kids right now.

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Speaker 4: How are those companies, companies in those sectors capitalizing all

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Speaker 4: of this? Have they acknowledged Are they aware of the

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Speaker 4: fact that there's so much buying power?

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Speaker 5: Oh?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, companies I think are excited about about this because

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Speaker 1: you know, there's always this youth obsession with products, because

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Speaker 1: they want to lock people in early to their brands

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Speaker 1: because then you know that loyalty can stick and this

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Speaker 1: can be a customer for decades. But now because the

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Speaker 1: little kids are so much more brand aware. Sorry I

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Speaker 1: shouldn't call them little kids, because these young adults are

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Speaker 1: so much more brand aware. I think they would, but

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Speaker 1: I think, you know, they are much more aware of

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Speaker 1: brands than previous generations, and so their loyalty can be

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Speaker 1: one over at a much younger age. Things like they're

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Speaker 1: much more politically involved and aware than kids in previous generations,

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Speaker 1: so you can appeal to them that way. They're much

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Speaker 1: more aware of their own individual preferences. And these were

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Speaker 1: things that Riley talked about too. She said, the jewelry

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Speaker 1: she sells political jewelry like Resist. There was a whole

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Speaker 1: Resist necklaces. But you know, even things like I love science,

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Speaker 1: I love reading, people want to express that immediately. So

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Speaker 1: brands are kind of locking into that. Expressing environmental awareness,

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Speaker 1: environmental concerns, things like that our ways brands can kind

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Speaker 1: of attract the alphas.

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Speaker 4: I imagine there are probably a lot of companies saying, look,

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Speaker 4: we've hooked these kids young, there'll be our customers for life.

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Speaker 4: Is that the sense that you're getting from both Generation

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Speaker 4: Alpha and these companies. How susceptible is all this to

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Speaker 4: economic shocks.

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Speaker 1: I was wondering that myself. I mean, if as things

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Speaker 1: get more expensive, if budgets start to come into effect

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Speaker 1: or financial distress for a lot of families, I think

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Speaker 1: that could probably have a big impact over the power

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Speaker 1: of the alphas. I mean, during the pandemic was a

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Speaker 1: time of record savings for a lot of American families.

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Speaker 1: That is totally reversed, which means the influenced kids can

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Speaker 1: have will probably reverse too, because they're not in direct

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Speaker 1: control of a lot of this money, as you pointed out,

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Speaker 1: So I do think maybe some of this influence will

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Speaker 1: fade a bit, But also the degree to which these

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Speaker 1: kids are tapped in to the economy, to each other,

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Speaker 1: to the world, that's not going away. So I think

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Speaker 1: that this is probably still going to have legs, if

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Speaker 1: not for the immediate future where maybe families are pulling back,

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Speaker 1: for the longer term future for sure.

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Speaker 4: To stay. Say, I wanted to bring you back in

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Speaker 4: because you know, I said, I didn't know if my

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Speaker 4: kids identified.

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Speaker 1: As Yes, yes, I remember, I asked them, Okay.

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Speaker 4: In fact, they are familiar with the term. They use

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Speaker 4: it okay, and they thought I was totally lame and

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Speaker 4: old for having to ask that question.

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Speaker 1: So they like they they're like, of course we're alpha's,

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Speaker 1: you're old.

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Speaker 4: For not no, Yeah, yeah, dad, come on, which is

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Speaker 4: just the general general vibe that I get. This is

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Speaker 4: the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gerra. To

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Speaker 4: get more from the Big Take and unlimited access to

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Speaker 4: all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg dot

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Speaker 4: com slash podcast offer. Thanks for listening, We'll be back tomorrow.

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Speaker 5: You s