Business: The Over-the-Thrill Crowd

Say the aging baby-boom kids: Gimme shelter (and lots more)

Age, alas, has caught up with the kids of the baby boom. Now, one in every three Americans are products of the population surge that began right after World War II and lasted until the mid-1960s. According to the Conference Board, a blue-ribbon business research body, the aging of this generation "will be the single most important economic stimulant of the 1980s."

The oldest of these postwar children are already 34, and over the next ten years they will cause a bulge in the big-spending 35 to 44 group. The number of Americans in this bracket will jump from 28 million to 40 million by the end of the decade, and they will be pocketing $1 out of every $4 in personal income, up from $1 of every $5 at present. By 1990 the average household income for people in this group will be close to $30,000 in real terms, and their total spending power will have grown by 70%. Because of their numbers and affluence, the aging baby boomers are being avidly courted by sellers of all sorts of goods and services. Says William Hull, research director for the J. Walter Thompson ad agency: "Anything that people in this group does is hot, and companies are therefore riding along with them into middle age."

They are entering an age when their outlays normally will be heavy because they will be buying and outfitting homes and educating their children. But this typical spending will be even more exuberant because the baby boomers are themselves the children of inflation, born with credit cards in their mouths and oriented toward spending rather than saving. They are part of the instant-gratification, self-indulgent Me generation, which has a taste for high-priced gadgets and little interest in self-denial.

The increased spending of the 35 to 44 group is expected to give a mighty lift to such key segments of the economy as housing, furniture, appliances, apparel, autos and financial services. Already this group spends 50% more than the average consumer for furniture and one-third more for appliances. John Widdicomb Co., a top-of-the-line furniture manufacturer, has increased its advertising to attract these people, while Chicago's John M. Smyth Co. retail furniture chain has expanded its interior decorating services to appeal to the more sophisticated customer entering early middle age.

Ford Motor Co. managers estimate that the 35 to 44 age group, with its interest in outdoor leisure pursuits, buys 25% of all vans and pickups. These consumers want fuel-efficient cars—but also fancy extras like air conditioning and stereo. Says Louis W. Stern, marketing professor at Northwestern University: "That age group wants the outward visible things that say, 'I have made it and I want to live comfortably.' "