May 21, 2020
As most of the nation contended with stay-at-home orders this spring, polling firm YouGov decided to survey 1,175 American adults to see what activities they might want to do once businesses fully reopen and social-distancing mandates end.
The big picture? Baby boomers, and to a lesser degree, Gen Xers, appeared to be more confident than millennials about resuming certain kinds of popular pursuits. As an example, 61% of boomers and 50% of Gen Xers who responded to the April 24-27 survey said that they would visit friends or family that they hadn’t seen since the beginning of social distancing, compared to 47% of millennials. Sixty-four percent of boomers and 52% of Gen Xers said that they would be up for going to bars and cafes once lockdowns ended; only 42% of adults born between 1982-99 put that activity on their list. While only 32% of millennials and 33% of Gen Xers said that they would visit a hairstylist or barber right after the end of a stay-at-home order, 50% of baby boomers indicated that they would do so. Forty-six percent of baby boomers longed to make in-person shopping trips to stores or malls, compared to 37% of Gen Xers and 35% of millennials.2
