Confidence Measures



Boomers surpass Millennials in confidence

Spending confidence among Boomers surpassed Millennials in April, defying a longstanding pattern of behavior in which younger people are always more optimistic than older people. A clear benefit to store-based retailers—which had previously benefited from Boomers’ spending—remains elusive. Although topline retail…


Surging Confidence Revives Boomers’ Prospects

Surging spending confidence among Boomers makes them a renewed target—albeit a challenging one—for marketers in the short term as spending plans bottom out among Millennials and plateau among Gen X shoppers. That’s the takeaway from data through March from the Spending…


2017 Outlook Held Back by Generation Gap

The consumer outlook in early 2017 continues to be held back by slipping confidence among Millennials—which is offsetting surging confidence to spend among Boomers. Further restraining the outlook in February was a slight slip in confidence among Gen X, which has…


Drop in Millennials’ Confidence Persists Post-Election

Spending confidence among Millennials continued to slide in January in stark contrast to surging post-election confidence among Boomers. As a result, consumer spending in 2017 is likely to be still more uneven among consumable and discretionary categories than last year—even as…