Mirror Mirror On the Wall, Who Snacks Most of All?

Posted On June 27, 2017

“Which Generation Snacks the Most?” the headline reads at TheStreet.com. And then, as if anticipating our answer, it adds: “It’s not millennials.”

How can it not be millennials? They’re the ones playing all the video games and Snapchatting on their iPhones. How do you spend all that time doing such things without a bag of Dorito’s on the couch beside you?

But according to TheStreet, it’s neither millennials nor iGen, who will be right there on the couch beside them if there are enough Xbox controllers, that snacks the most. It’s Baby Boomers.

TheStreet last year cited research from the NPD Group that showed Boomers bought ready-to-eat snacks 20 percent more often than millennials.

Funny how it’s never the 65-year-old man whose cart is loaded down with Cheetos and Crunch ‘n Munch in front of me in line at the grocery store.

But Chester Cheetah, once again, is in the details.

Along with fruit, which is among the top snack choices for both groups, the study found Baby Boomers bought lots of nuts and yogurt, while millennials were more likely to reach for chips and cookies.

Is yogurt really in the same category as Frito’s when it comes to snacks? No word on whether that category also includes prunes and Metamucil.

Millennials and Baby Boomers also snack for different reasons, unsurprisingly. Millennials are more likely to eat on the run, while Baby Boomers often snack to avoid having to prepare a big meal that they might be eating alone.

I noted last year in a piece called The Snack Manifesto that the compulsory snacks we parents provide at seemingly every children’s activity is yet another way in which we pamper them. Turns out, our parents like to pamper themselves, too.

Or maybe some of those snacks they buy are for their grandkids?

No mention of Generation X in TheStreet’s piece. We still like a good steak, even if we have to brown-bag our lunches at work for a week in order to afford it.

Categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y / Millennials