Hey, what's news listeners?
It's Sunday, November 16th.
I'm Caitlin McCabe for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's New Sunday,
the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world.
On the show this week,
we're taking a look at the young American consumer and why they're starting to break up with fast,
casual restaurants.
You could call it burrito belt tightening or a salad slump, but one thing is clear.
Chains like Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Kava are falling out of favor with Gen Z and Millennials.
The younger cohort that 25 to 35 attrition,
they don't have the steam that they had last year in the way that they were visiting or their frequency of visiting.
So the 25 to 35 consumer is the most under pressure and they make up about 30% of our consumer base.
and they're down about 15%.
We believe that this trend is not unique to Chipotle.
It's occurring across all restaurants, as well as many discretionary categories.
This shift is raising questions among analysts and investors about what's ahead for these companies.
But more broadly,
it's also sparked concern about the economic health of this age group and what it means for the U.S.
economy.
To help unpack it all,