A recent CBS 60 Minutes show highlighted the gap between the Baby Boomers, those people born between 1946 and 1965, Generation X, those people born between 1965 a nd 1980, and the New Generation Y or Millennial's, those people born between 1980 and 1995.  Highlighted below is a news article in a British Newspaper that describes the angst I am referring to.

Each older generation, has typically been critical of each newer generation, IE the "incumbent generation", as far back as there has been recorded history. Baby Boomers have been critical of the Gen Y's, just as the parents of the Baby Boomers were critical of Baby Boomers, when Baby Boomers were the incumbent generation. 

As the Millennial's hit the workforce, retailer and service providers, market to the Millennial's specific set of buying requirements, there is a perceived impact on the previous generation, as will be the case, when Millennial's are being replaced in our workforce by a "New" incumbent generation, currently filling the space as Tweens; those born after 1995, who are between middle childhood and adolescence in human development, or currently between 8 & 12 year olds. 

Focusing on the new Millennial market; advertisers, marketers, retailers, and service providers of all sorts will have to start developing new products ear-marked directly to the Millennial's buying habits. With each new market, the previous generation will undoubtedly find issue with the offering, as is the case with of FlyBe, a British airline possibly charging for customer that do not use their self-service kiosk.   

Those regular readers will recall that I am a big proponent of the self-service industry and capabilities, in direct contrast with some of my earlier Baby Boomers. Yes, hard to believe, but I was born before 1965... But what is that cost? 

The story quotes an anonymous source who works for the airline as saying:

"We have long been on record as saying that those passengers who want the personal service of a check-in desk or prefer to use one out of habit will be costing other passengers a lot of money." 

What this means, is that with the rise in all of the airline services, salaries, fuel, taxes, etc..., that cost is being past to the consumer. If adding a self check in cost keeps the expenses at bay, or defrays the cost, who can argue it is a bad thing? 

With the techno savvy Millennial's traveling more, as well as spending more, we will undoubtedly see more services geared towards this group of incumbent consumers.   I remember when the ATM 1^st came into existence. The horror around customer service, impact to the banking industry, and overall dissatisfaction that the ATM would create was going to cripple the US economy and send the country into a spiral the depths we will have never seen.  

OK, I'm still waiting. Didn't happen, isn't going to happen, and I am sure the same is true with kiosk in general.

It used to be that the onus was on the industry to prove that the self-service kiosk were beneficial. Now it's on the consumer to prove that they're not. That says something about technology adoption, as well as the amount of technical business weight that Millennial's carry on a consumer market. 

So how will consumers see it? 

Economists will undoubtedly say that depends on which side of the generational gap you, as a consumer fall over.

A certain segment of the Boomers and Gen X's will embrace the technological advances, along with the majority of the Millennial's.  

Other segments, such as the older Boomer; those approaching 60 as the FlyBe article infers, or fewer number of Gen X's, those that harbor overtones of cynicism against things held dear to the next generations, and an even smaller segment of the  Millennial's, (IE those that did not get an award with their self service receipt, will most certainly call their moms to have them complain to the airlines for not recognizing how special their child is when they used the self-service kiosk), all of whom will otherwise write blogs about how this new fangled way "was going to cripple the US economy and send the country into a financial spiral the depths we will have never seen".

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