Baby boomers have long been considered the generation that did not want to grow up, perpetual adolescents even as they become eligible for social security. Now, a growing body of research shows that the real Peter Pans are not the boomers, but the generations that have followed. For many, by choice or circumstance, independence no longer begins at 21. People between 20 and 34 are taking longer to finish their educations, establish themselves in careers, marry, have children and become financially independent, said Frank F. Furstenberg, who leads the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. “A new period of life is emerging in which young people are no longer adolescents but not yet adults,” Mr. Furstenberg said.  (more…)

I love my hometown. There are 36 parks across the five boroughs with areas designated for barbecuing, many of them with grills available for public use. Churches, block associations and other community groups often haul stoves onto sidewalks or streets on summer days, while friends and families camp out on apartment rooftops, in brownstone backyards, even on fire escapes. Whether they are grilling tempeh or T-bones, chances are it’s not just about the food. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  (more…)

In a sign that perhaps the recession’s hold on the consumer’s psyche is finally loosening, a key measure of consumer confidence climbed for a third straight month in May, a research group said Tuesday, with the outlook for the next few months spiking to pre-recession levels. One can only hope…  (more…)

The demography of motherhood in the United States has shifted strikingly in the past two decades. Compared with mothers of newborns in 1990, today’s mothers of newborns are older and better educated. They are less likely to be white and less likely to be married.  (more…)

Restaurants all over the country are beginning to see signs of a potential recovery after a dismal 2009. Sales at some restaurants have risen in the last few months, and the industry has hired thousands of additional workers. “There’s no question about this,” said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks sales at 47 restaurant chains with a total of 103,000 outlets. “There’s a recovery going on.” Mr. Balzer said that March sales at restaurants open for at least a year were up 1 percent compared with March of last year. While that might not seem like much, it broke a string of 10 months of negative sales. He cautioned that while the sales trends were uneven across the industry, almost half the chains he tracks — mostly fast-food and family dining restaurants like Denny’s — had begun showing gains. (more…)

After spending 10 days in the Bay area I was really struck by the number of 20-somethings (or younger) carrying reusable water bottles in a personal act of going green. Wherever I looked — on the streets of the city, on the slopes in Tahoe, or at the field of a local lacrosse game — colorful refillable bottles were everywhere.  The city of Portland is making a huge commitment to this initiative by offering access to tap water in 52 locations. Clearly this is a trend that shows no signs of abating on the west coast and who knows how far it will travel. Good news for manufacturers of the bottles but not so much for companies like Coca-Cola who manufactures Dasani (plant based bottle or not). Still, I am not certain reusable bottles will translate well throughout the country — especially in a city like Atlanta that has really awful tasting tap water. (more…)

The iconic Girl Scout cookies continue to fall on hard times. News outlets are reporting that some boxes smell “stinky” due to denigrating ingredients (although the cookies are safe to eat). Just this week I brought home my usual 3 boxes of Thin Mints (hey they freeze well) and couldn’t help wondering if the cookie had gotten even smaller. It seems like every year the box and the product inside is a disappointment. Any product developer knows that cost optimized iteration after iteration doesn’t measure damage from the original. At some point, your loyalists will push back and find the product unrecognizable and the eating experience unsatisfying. For me, I have just about reached that point with my beloved Thin Mints. It will be pretty sad if this iconic part of American culture falls prey to poor strategic vision and planning.  

Congrats Saints!

You’d have to had been under a rock to not know that Steve Jobs introduced Wednesday what Apple hopes will be the coolest device on the planet: a slender tablet computer called the iPad. Apple is positioning the device, some versions of which will be available in March, as a pioneer in a new genre of computing, somewhere between a laptop and a smartphone. “The bar is pretty high,” Mr. Jobs acknowledged. “It has to be far better at doing some key things.” While admittedly cool looking, I am struggling with what exactly the iPad is (besides horribly named) and what need it could possible fulfill. What might very well be a precursor of success was the conversation I had last night. Two of my daughters already thought the iPad was the coolest thing on the planet. Apparently it was the talk of the lunch table at school as kids everywhere whipped out iPhones to show each other the iPad. Steve Jobs might be on to something after all.  (more…)