Introducing the “Yupster”
So what on earth is a “Yupster”, what does it have to do with retail and why should place managers care?
As I described in a recent webinar for Downtown Colorado Inc. (see link below), a Yupster is a type of consumer defined in “psychographic” terms, on the basis of lifestyles, sensibilities and aspirations. It is a creation of mine, part of my firm’s typology for understanding Downtown / “Main Street” districts and the kinds of people who tend to gravitate to them.
It was inspired by David Brooks, the erstwhile New York Times columnist. In his fascinating 2000 book, “BoBo’s in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There,” Brooks intuited a new cultural elite that represented a mix of 1960’s bohemian values with 1980’s bourgeois ones — effectively, a blend of hippies and yuppies.
I instantly recognized this person from my consulting work, as a stakeholder of critical importance not just because of their discretionary income but also, their sociopolitical influence. So, I endeavored to render a more precise, nuanced characterization that would prove useful in assessing realistic retail potential and devising practical implementation strategies.
Yupster Characteristics (see note below)
Yupsters are highly educated and financially comfortable Baby Boomers (aged 60 and older) who, as empty nesters, now have ample time and discretionary income for leisured pursuits.
They are socially liberal and might have roughed it for a summer in late-1960’s Haight-Ashbury or homesteaded in an “inner-city” neighborhood a decade later, but, especially at this point in their lives, they have come to expect a higher level of amenity and convenience.
They exhibit refined and urbane tastes. They are readers of The New Yorker and listeners of NPR. They are artsy, yes, but with a bias towards “high culture” — symphony, opera, ballet, art museums, etc. They also patronize intimate venues featuring jazz or folk, but you are unlikely to find them at ear-splittingly loud live-music clubs.
These are cultural consumers, for the most part — rather than cultural producers. They are not the edgy, alternatively-minded hipsters who squat in lofts and create the art. Rather, they are the buyers and the patrons. Not the one-percenters who spend eight figures on a painting, but rather, the upper middle class couples who vacation in artsy communities and wander into ceramics’ boutiques.
They prefer smaller, independently-run businesses — albeit with a few notable exceptions, like Trader Joe’s. They support a distinctive retail mix of craft galleries, community-oriented bookstores, specialty food purveyors, farmers’ markets, art-house cinemas and gourmet restaurants.
With regard to dining, they have become ever more removed from contemporary trends and tastes, preferring traditional sit-down experiences — with advance reservations, waiter/waitress service, low decibel levels and Western European cuisines, especially French and Italian. They are less enamored with counter-service “fast-casual” formats.
In terms of fashion, Eileen Fisher is their lodestar, particularly its comfortable easy-to-wear styles that convey an artsy, eclectic, vaguely bohemian flair. The brand, wrote The New York Times, “is designed for graying bobos who dabble in ceramics and have lifetime subscriptions to The New Yorker. [The] kimono shapes and floppy trousers are, as one devotee said, ‘a safe way to be bohemian in a grown-up world.”
Yupsters in Local Planning and Politics (again, see note below)
The natural habitats where one can find Yupsters in large concentrations include liberal university towns teeming with professors as well as cerebrally-minded retirees; mature urban neighborhoods full of historic architecture and old-growth trees; and destination art towns.
Having first arrived in these communities long ago, Yupsters have often been able to amass considerable clout in local politics. With their educational pedigrees, they can be quite articulate in their advocacy. Many of them cut their teeth in the protest movements of the 1960’s, and their passion has abated little since. And now, as well-off empty nesters, they have time to spare. As a result, their concerns and preoccupations have a way of driving and defining the conversation.
That said, their political disposition today skews small-c conservative. While they might admire hipster grit and edge from afar, the places where they live and shop need remain at or above threshold levels of perceived safety.
Furthermore, they can prove resistant to change. They often want their communities to reflect the heyday of their lives, rather than evolve into something different for newer arrivals, which begets an openness to all manner of market interventions, like formula retail restrictions and legacy business protections.
They will often frame issues in binary terms, with outsiders cast as villainous if not subhuman. Common targets include “greedy” landlords, new (often younger) residents, out-of-town tourists or just plain “they” — to be rightfully opposed with NIMBY-ism of various kinds or, in the case of retail, calls for storefront or commercial vacancy taxes.
Their hand-wringing, coupled with their influence, sometimes leads municipalities, BID’s and other UPMO’s to retain advisers like me, who can offer evidence-based analysis and impartial guidance if not political cover.
When the City of Boulder (CO), a classic Yupster stronghold, hired MJB Consulting — as a sub to Progressive Urban Management Associates (P.U.M.A.) — to undertake a retail vibrancy study, it was in part a response to stakeholder angst about news that the Boulder Cafe, a beloved institution occupying a prominent space on the city’s famed Pearl Street Mall, was going to be replaced by a Capital One Cafe.
On such assignments, my approach is often one of foregrounding their commonalities with the other consumer submarkets which arouse their suspicion. In the university town of Ithaca (NY), where Yupsters (along with many others) have tended to draw a sharp distinction between locals and visitors, I used survey data to help make the case that the two actually shared similar psychographic compositions.
I have also tried to make the case that the fetishizing of food and beverage among Millennial “Neo-Hipsters” — in the form of chef-driven restaurants, craft breweries and artisanal coffeehouses — is simply an iteration on or broadening of the same creative impulse which Yupsters have long celebrated, reflecting commonality and continuity across the generations.
Particularly in communities of modest size, I will point to the opportunities for retail amenities that the “they” can make possible. Yupsters, for instance, can have a love-hate relationship with universities, but they are somewhat pacified upon realization that in fact they owe their general bookstore or their Trader Joe’s — or their realistic hopes for such businesses — to the consumer demand and broader visibility which large educational institutions provide.
Of course, these political dynamics are shifting somewhat, not only with the passage of time — the oldest Boomers are now entering their 80’s — but also because Yupsters are increasingly on their heels as they receive blame for a host of societal ills by younger generations, including, most notably, the shortage of affordable housing. With Millennials and Zoomers ascending to political office in greater numbers, the next five to ten years will be interesting times indeed.
NOTE: Apologies if anyone has been offended by this characterization. No one fits it to a tee, and every sentence could be started with “Generally speaking” or some variant thereof.
WEBINAR LINK: https://vimeo.com/1199902482/a8f57341be?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci — my presentation starts at the 2:45 mark and finishes at the 21:55 minute mark