Bulk consumer's prospects

[entervendingman]

Hi there, I 've serfed today one distressing newspaper article about demografic situation. It talks about next 20-30 years period, but some conclusions we can do right now!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...r-america.html - here's the article. Notice please, there are several pages!

Reading it I was rather confused, because classicly kids are the main buyers. As a supplier we don't take part in everyday contest for latest consumer and do not see so close as actual vendors can.

So I'd like to know:

- is it true about concentrating doing locations out of city centers to downtowns;

- is it really income may reduces depending on kids amount;

- what any ideas to switch on totaly adults demand with bulk vending products can you have;

- is this forecast actual or another canard?

I belive these questions are very important for prolonged and real lifetime profit bulk vending business.

Let's discuss it! What do you think, fellows?

[shepherdsflock]

Yes, this is a legitimate concern; not just for bulk vendors. Every single country and civilization that has ever had a rapid and sustained downward slide of birth rates has suffered immensely because of it. Look at Europe. The birth rate in countries like Greece, Spain, and France is abismal and they're going broke in part because of it.

Here's where the focal point of the problem is: as birth rates decrease, the population size decreases and the average age increases. This creates several problems. First, you end up with fewer young people to work and support the older people whose health is deteriorating. Second, in a growing society with lots of births, there is pressure on society to innovate and find new ways to be productive so that young people can support families. When this doesn't happen, the shift goes toward innovating health care for the aging majority of the population. Healthcare is a non-value added industry. It does not produce wealth, it consumes it; so the economy begins to contract. Because health care is so expensive, wages and salaries for the young people who work in the healthcare industries to support the aging population have to decline as the number of aging increases. This reduces expendable income for the few that have families and so they are much less likely to spend on non-essentials, which again causes economic contraction. The third and most sinister problem is that the young who are experiencing a diminishing standard of living become resentful of the aging population and begin to be indifferent or even hostile toward them. This means lower standards of care and lobbying to reduce funding for health programs for the elderly. This, I believe, will ultimately lead to euthanasia for the elderly. Once grandma and grandpa begin to be too costly, they will be put down like an arthritic dog.

There is another problem prevalent in Europe that we should also take note of. As the birth rates of native Europeans plummet, immigrants from hostile countries and cultures see it as an opportunity to overrun them by having as many children as possible. I don't wish to spark a religious battle on this forum, I am simply pointing a real life example of why birth rates are important. If it weren't Muslims it would be somebody else. Even here in the United States we have a similar problem with Hispanics. I love Hispanics, and in fact my wife's father is Hispanic, but the fact remains that a country and society that doesn't perpetuate itself will be replaced by one that will. Look at the countries and cultures who are having the most babies. Do you like their culture? If so, don't have babies and you can look forward to being absorbed into their culture as it grows.. If you like our society and culture and want to see it flourish and perpetuate for generations to come, then have babies.

[snack dude]

Man are you a ray of sunshine

[Priusjames]

Glad I'm getting ready to retire (from a major university). Without students to educate I might still be working at hardware stores without a pension or even health insurance.

I stumbled into my career when I was doing handyman work...outside my regular full time hardware manager job which, together with my wife's full time managers paycheck, still didn't pay our modest renter's lifestyle....no chance we'd ever have been able to buy a house. A client I did a remodel for was horrified to realize 3 jobs barely keep a young family afloat (in Orange County CA), and recommended me to a colleague on campus. Even without a college degree, the educational system has positively affected my life in no small way. I find it ironic that the only place where a guy can get into senior management without a degree is at a major university! They know the value of a degree best...and it's not a requirement to have a degree to work and advance there (except faculty positions)

Too bad such a large number of our students all come from, and then are forced to return to other countries...the Public University System is mostly interested in income, due to massively declining public funding, and foreign students pay higher fees (undergraduates, that is...they get grad school and their Ph.D. FREE...paid with our tax dollars!!)..was there ever any chance we'd put educating Americans ahead of the mighty dollar? I don't know, but there certainly is no hope at this point. So, I'm buying vending machines.

Heh. My point was that we already are educating the world on our taxes, the university system won't even notice that there aren't any more American kids...except that there aren't as many domestic applications to ignore in favor of international students.

Crap...I forgot I was standing on this soapbox!

Vend on...

[lurtsman]

Shepherd has been learning economics

It's always nice to see another person picking up the field.

[allsnax]

In my area they cant build enough schools. There are so many kids they are putting in modular buildings and people have to camp out to get in line and get their kids in kindergarden. I am in a mostly Hispanic low/middle income area. The next county over is closing schools. It is a higher income area. My conclusion is higher earning professionals are chucking traditional family model but it is being made up for with imigrants.

Also the demographics are changing. My customers were predominatly African American 10 years ago and are now mostly Hispanic.

[entervendingman]

I'd agreed to most of your points, guys. The part of miiddle and old aged buyers constantly grows in many reasons. Of course It depends on teriitory and economy conditions, but unfortunately I believe that even Hispanic, Chinese or other incomes couldn't turn over the situation fundamentally. The main question for me is - how to fill adult demend doing vending business. What, maybe hygienic novelties, maybe minor penny drugs or some useful trifles we as suppliers and vendors could suggest. There was a time when gumballs weren't even in mind, now even grown-ups spend a lot of money for them. It's rather wide field to think on. What is your ideas about this thing?

[shepherdsflock]

I think the vending industry will ultimately end up marketing to vices. As toys and candy phase out because there are few children, there will be a plethora of adult aged people. With the current legislations legalizing formerly illegal drugs, you'll probably see a lot more machines like the old cigarette vending machines that used to be popular years ago. They'll have some kind of card reader so that you have to swipe an I.D. to verify age.

When or if it reaches this point, I hope to be out of vending. I have no desire to sell those kinds of products.

However, I'm hoping that the current trend of my predominantly Hispanic locations continues. It seems that Hispanics have lots of kids and lots of money in my area, if I'm to believe my machines' revenue. Perhaps the Hispanics will continue to have lots of children and the above scenario won't come true.

[shepherdsflock]

Man are you a ray of sunshine

That's my job. I'm here to cheer you up.

Shepherd has been learning economics

It's always nice to see another person picking up the field.

The longer you live, the harder it is to NOT learn economics. You have to really bury your head in the sand not to see how these things work. With the birth of my third child, I've been faced with a huge pile of medical bills. Looking at the bills and how little extra income we have after buying food and paying for a place to live, I just didn't see how I could pay for them. Then a friend told me to call the financial counselor at the hospital. It turns out that our income level with our family size qualifies us as low income and we can apply to have our medical bills waived. We've also been struggling to put enough food on the table. I then discovered that we qualify for WIC (a program to provide food for mothers and children). We also qualify for state health insurance for our children. This is all on a salary of $47,000 per year. I thought that was a decent salary for a family of five, but according the Federal government, that's borderline poverty. I'm definitely going to ask the hospital to waive some of the bills, since we really can't afford them; however I don't think we really need the food assistance or state health insurance for our kids if we don't have to pay all these medical bills. But look at how much free money is available to a family, even a family making a decent living!

This is how the immigrants are becoming the wealthiest groups in America. They have lots of kids, so that no matter what income level they are able to qualify for a myriad of tax funded assistance programs, they work for cash and don't report income, and they can spend all their cash on whatever they want because their housing, food, and medical care is all free!

[shepherdsflock]

In my area they cant build enough schools. There are so many kids they are putting in modular buildings and people have to camp out to get in line and get their kids in kindergarden. I am in a mostly Hispanic low/middle income area. The next county over is closing schools. It is a higher income area. My conclusion is higher earning professionals are chucking traditional family model but it is being made up for with imigrants.

Also the demographics are changing. My customers were predominatly African American 10 years ago and are now mostly Hispanic.

You are right on. Most of the people I work with, predominately under 30 years old, making $45+k per year are either single, cohabiting, or married and have zero children. There are only two other people in my entire office (that's about 50 people) under the age 50 that has children besides myself. That's a scary statistic. Out of a regular office, only 6% of the workers have children that are not adults (the older workers have children that are grown)! And our office is primarily staffed by young people (only a few upper management and a couple of project managers are over 30 years of age). The white middle class is not having children. When you sit down to eat lunch with these folks, all they talk about is coffee, gourmet food, home improvements, craft beers, tech gadgets, and their dogs. Their lives are consumed with luxuries and entertainment.

When I visit my laundromat locations, there are always kids running around and it's also where my best sales are. The low income folks, the ones who have to use laundromats, have far more children than their wealthier counterparts.