Pre-Pandemic when Millennials were the favorite media bashing group of youth many were lamenting the fact Millennials were spending $10-$25 bucks on avocado toast and washing it down with $4 latte’s when they should have been saving their money to buy their 1st home. [i] The whole avocado toast thing went along with the stereotype of Millennials being entitled brats who demanded the finer things in life without willing to suffer the hard work and drudgery it takes to eventually obtain the finer things in life. I know for sure millennials were not indulging in avocado toast on a daily (or maybe even monthly) basis and plenty of them worked hard to try and scrimp and save to at least pay off their college/car/credit card debt loans. Still, sometimes when you are broke and financial solvency seems as far away as the leprechaun’s pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, an immediate gratification of some delightful treat is tempting. In my case I’ll take the occasional $4 latte over that green mush I would find disgusting on anything including toast.
This idea of spending $ on some minor luxury when you’re too
broke to spend $ on a larger thing is better know as The Lipstick affect[ii] This
theory originated, according my former Mary Kay Director who recruited me in
2001, during the Great Depression when women were broke and couldn’t afford anything,
yet were more than willing to spend gobs and gobs of money on something cheap
but still luxurious like a tube of lipstick because it made them feel rich even
when they were too poor to afford food to feed said lips. Of course, in 2001 there were plenty more
makeup companies with lipsticks in all prices ranges that my Mary Kay lady
career quickly turned to a financial boondoggle instead of the financial means
to escape my Mary Kay director promised me at the time. I was
thinking about this effect when I saw a YouTube done by Company Man for a
company called Crumbl Cookies.[iii]
For those of you who are not familiar with the Company Man
vlogger, Company man profiles major companies and talks about their history,
what makes them great, what makes them awful, what made them fail and what is
making them a big success that may mean they are coming to a strip-mall near
you. Crumbl cookies bragged about being the best
cookies in the world which is debatable.
Company man mentioned they bake the cookies fresh in their stores with
quality ingredients and then limit them to 6 varieties per store which they
change out on a weekly basis with other vloggers giving their opinions over the
quality of the Crumbl cookies on a routine basis.
Now, Company Man wasn’t one of the Crumbl cookie social influencers. In fact ,he was quick to point out a single
Crumbl cookie has 760 calories [iv] which Crumbl encourages you to break into 4
even pie pieces to share or eat later. To me it’s like giving the other Reese’s peanut butter cup to
someone else from a standard two pack of Reese’s. Theoretically you could do it, but who
actually does. Crumbl cookies also costs
around $5 with many of those vloggers complaining the cookies are “too soft”. Me, I love myself a soft baked cookie.
So, I of course decided I had to decide for myself if it was
worth it to spend $5 for a single chocolate chunk cookie when I know I can frequently
buy an entire bag of Jewel soft-baked cookies for the same price or maybe
entire bag of Oreo’s for about a buck or two more. Quick opinion. Yes, the chocolate chip chunk cookie was
worth $5 price. Is it worth it on a
routine basis? No. You are better off
most days going for the Jewel bag of somewhat freshly baked chocolate chip cookies instead.
I also tried Crumbl’s French toast cookie as well. To me, the French toast cookie tasted like a
blondie and a slice of French toast has a baby and it couldn’t make up its mind
between the two.
So, are Crumbl cookies destined to become Gen Z’s go to cheap
luxury indulgence that old folks will lament how they are spending all
this money instead of saving it for healthier groceries like a bag of apples
for roughly the same price? Maybe. Maybe not.
Me, I view the $5 in one of two ways. Yes I would rather not spend $5 for a single
cookie when in general I can get a bag of cookies from the grocery store or
make myself fresh bake cookies out of cheap flour and a bag of Nestle Toll House Morsels where I can bake a few
dozen chocolate chip cookies. However,
since it’s best not to eat cookies on a routine basis maybe holding off for a
$5 cookie might be a good indulgence after a workout or a week where you ate $5
worth of apples and spending $5 on a single cookie to prevent yourself from
eating a dozen or more store bought or homemade cookies could be a good thing
as well.
So, what about you? Would you spend $5 for a luxury cookie?
[i] https://jeffjbutler.com/2019/04/12/where-did-the-avocado-toast-millennial-stereotype-come-from/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/1329842/millennials-not-just-blowing-money-on-avocado-toast/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=WE_DSA_New-Targeting_2024&gad_source=5&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm8WHyMSThgMVsUL_AR0ViQEeEAAYASAAEgIBpfD_BwE
https://www.financialsamurai.com/millennial-avocado-toast-analysis/
