One thing that I notice is that boomers are not buying because they don’t need to anymore, all my friends are decluttering, unloading, and only buying what they need. When a large portion of the population gets old, there is not much that they want to buy.
They are also giving stuff to their kids. Diningroom sets, bedroom suites, rugs glassware.
They are also yard sale-ing things.
When Daughter went back to college this year she transitioned from a dorm room to a apartment that is shared with 4 other students. She needed some storage furniture and found these cloth basket things that fit on shelves that fold down when not in use. She got them on sale for like a buck a piece but the storage shelf they fit in was waaaay over priced. We went through our building and found an old shelf with wheels that had been left in one of our rentals. It needed some minor reworking which included a couple of shelves removed and reinstalled to accomodate the baskets some sanding and new paint. Total cost was like 12 bucks. The shelf in the store cost almost 300 bucks and was made of pressed board. Daughter had a blast working on the project and was proud of the unit once it was done.
We saved almost 300 bucks AND had fun doing it. And that seems to be our trend lately. Can we make it or fix it or repurpose and old item to fit a new need. Saves us lots of cash and it's fun to do.