In a USA TODAY article “What Paying with Plastic Says About You”, published on August 29, 2014, Lisa Kiplinger states “Ways that Boomers show their age: wearing sensible shoes, relying on reading glasses and paying for a cup of coffee with cash.
There’s a growing generation gap when it comes to using plastic for purchases under $5, a survey out this week by CreditCards.com reveals. More than half of Millennials are likely to whip out a card for a pack of gum or a newspaper, while 77% of people older than 50 still dig out cash. / Associated Press
“I think those people mostly use cash because that’s the way we’ve always done it,” says Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst for CreditCards.com. 
“But Millennials have grown up doing things like going to school and using a prepaid card to pay for lunch. For a lot of younger folks, cash is just something that they don’t carry around.”
”In the book ”10 Answer Keys Communicating with the 5 Generations in the Workplace” page 197, authors Meredith “Kit” Bromfield and Mary L. Erlain write “Our childhood memories hold a lot of clues to our buying styles. The era in which we were raised in, along with the influences of the media, economic, global and entertainment worlds, all are factors in our lives.
Meredith “Kit” Bromfield, www.meredithbromfield.com, Crossing Your Bridge© believes, “that knowing this about the different generations can be very useful. Here is an example of several businesses that are working with this knowledge. Stores that cater to older clientele have now on their counters penny dishes, where a customer can take out pennies for their purchases. Another idea that has sprung from that is a donation jar for a worthy cause, and the customer can drop in the change that they just received. Not to discount our credit card payers they are allowed to round up their purchase price to also participate in the cause.
Mary L. Erlain, www.peak-ds.com and www.maryerlain.com, Peak Development Strategies believes, “the evolution of the use of plastic is amazing to me. I would receive the occasional credit card. I remember my days as a cashier going through the paper book looking for the bad card numbers. Yes, I dated myself. Times have changed, it is now rare for the cashier to receive cash. I recall one of the large credit card companies promoting the use of credit/debit cards where the person who paid in cash totally hosed up the system and pace of doing business was overplayed to the point of humor. As of next year, our systems will change again when all the credit card readers will need to change to adopt the “chip and pin” technology. The use of money as well as the values as they relate to money are very unique and credit card companies seem to be keeping up with the trends.
Recent Comments