A Consumer Underclass: Scorned Teens

Short on bucks for lunch today? Need some money for a new computer? Want to put a down payment on that canary yellow Jetta?

If you’re strapped for cash, go to the nearest Starbucks or surf shop or Urban Outfitters, tackle a teenager and demand that he empty out the green contents of his designer wallet. Most likely, you’ll discover enough dinero to buy lunch with dessert and coffee for you and a friend.

Preteens and teenagers in the 21st century are the richest they’ve been in history, thanks to the $50-a-week allowance given to them by parents, says a survey for the U.S. Department of Labor. In 1998, U.S. teens spent $141 billion, an average of $4,548 each, on anything from Hurley shirts to iced lattes.

Yet despite these staggering statistics on youth spending, corporations and establishments consistently turn their backs on teenage customers, often providing poor service, suffocating salesclerks or no acknowledgment whatsoever.

The freedom allowed a teenager in a store certainly differs from that allowed an adult customer. Adults are granted the liberty of combing through merchandise, comparing prices, brands and sizes. Store employees are helpful and encourage browsing, hoping that an item will catch the adult’s eye and open his or her wallet.

On the other hand, casual teen buyers are assumed to be uncontrollable kleptomaniacs ready to pounce on merchandise behind unsuspecting employees’ backs. Salesclerks on commission automatically assume that teens are empty money sources and ultimately a waste of time.

Why help that 15-year-old checking out headphones when I can persuade that woman in Electronics to buy a stereo?

Furthermore, establishments consider groups of three or four juvenile girls who enter a clothing store as “field trip dress-up” parties, trying on items simply for fun and abusing the merchandise with no intention of buying.

If not rude and distant, clerks are smothering and filled with accusations, their eyes watching for any suspicious move. Teens are then eager to leave because of the intense pressure to buy and their awkwardness about the scrutiny they receive.

Of course, shopping situations are always breezier for teens accompanied by an adult, for clerks know that Mommy or Daddy is the one with the checkbook and credit card.

Teens who frequent restaurants are treated with the same rudeness encountered at the malls or stores. Servers and hosts are brash and sometimes disappear for long periods.

They appear to be friendly at tables of families and older diners, yet act as if a teen table’s request for napkins or refills of Diet Coke is some kind of burden. Like commissioned salesclerks, servers expect a meager tip from their young customers; therefore they grant most of their time to tables of generous adults.

Teenagers certainly are not a priority for waiters and waitresses; they are last on the list for service. Again, dining is much more pleasant with an adult in tow.

Despite teens’ growing amounts of money and their positive influence on the economy, corporations and people in the service sector either ignore or are unaware of the buying power of today’s youth.

The age gap allows adult employees to abuse teen customers and take advantage of their power over immature young people, knowing fully that those customers will not be willing to complain to the management. Likewise, the age difference reinforces the notion of adult superiority and inflates the ego. No adult wants to be subservient to a snotty rich kid.

Perhaps overall, poor service for teenagers reflects a feeling of intimidation about this new trend toward having young consumers in the market economy. Adults wrongly assume that the money today’s teens control is carelessly thrown into their undeserving and ungrateful pockets.

However, teenagers are incorporating jobs into their busy school days, taking part-time positions and working full time in the summer to have cash in the bank for the next year.

Young people are more independent from their parents but do not necessarily show their wealth through their appearance.

Nonetheless, teens truly are miniature adults. According to USA Weekend’s 12th Annual Teen Survey, half the teenagers polled work for their spending money, nine in 10 save money, and a majority believe that they should share expenses with their parents for college and a car.

Given the current trends, the buying power of teens will grow at an increasing rate.

Businesses must acknowledge that if many teenagers are responsible enough to work and make their own money, they are entitled to respect and better service.

The fact that teens are indeed consuming more goods than ever only suggests more reason to treat them with the politeness and equality granted to adult customers.