Businesses that cater to the baby boom generation`s desire to remain youthful are booming themselves. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Americans spent $38.8 billion on personal care products in 1985 and $52.3 billion on those same products in 1989.
NuSkin, a Utah-based company that markets nutritional and personal care products aimed specifically at youth-seeking baby boomers, believes the potential for continued growth is phenomenal. ”It`s like Gerber Baby Foods. It was almost nothing when it started and then you had the baby boom and it took off. Later it was Hula Hoops and now, we think, it is personal care,”
said company spokesman Jason Chaffetz.
As proof, Chaffetz noted that NuSkin began in 1984 with just $100,000 in sales. That grew to $40 million by 1989, $230 million in 1990 and topped $500 million for 1991. NuSkin relies on an army of 108,000 home distributors, most working part time, for its sales network.
Lincolnshire resident Mark Goldstein, who owned a graphic design studio, became a part-time distributor in August 1990 and took the business full time in December 1991. ”The truth is, I was looking for a way out of my business. I was working 90 to 100 hours a week, but I was missing my kids growing up. I was making a good living, but I was burning out,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein now makes money, not only from the items he sells but by receiving a portion of the proceeds from the sales by other distributors he recruits. Although he declined to put a number on his actual income, ”I am supporting my family. It requires effort, it`s not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it works if you do,” he said.
Health, diet and fitness businesses are booming, but there is a lot of competition. Storefront diet programs such as Jenny Craig and NutriSystem compete with drugstore diets, hospital and medical diet programs and health spas.
Health clubs now compete, not only with each other but with personal trainers and the home fitness equipment industry, noted Kim Pagano, an aerobics instructor and personal trainer. The one thing that health clubs offer that personal training and home exercise do not is a social atmosphere. ”For a lot of couples, their whole lifestyle and social life revolves around their club,” noted Pagano, who teaches classes at the Bannockburn Bath & Tennis Club. To attract new members, clubs have made an effort to offer a broader range of classes and programs to make exercise easier and more enjoyable. ”Anybody who always wants something for nothing is not going to get anything, but people are finding out that exercise doesn`t have to be so military and regimented,” Pagano said.
Special classes, such as those designed for women during and after their pregnancies, allow baby boomers to continue their fitness regimens despite changes in lifestyle and physical condition. ”It`s something you just don`t want to give up once you get into it,” Pagano said.
