Millennials are hailed as responsible for the economic downturn within several industries. So we talked with people from some of these industries: advertising, home ownership, jewelry, and a local café, to discover the extent of the economic effect millennials have had as a result of their problematic spending habits.

“We just don’t understand what makes millennials buy things, and it’s killing our industry,” said Harold Blightly, CEO of Advertising Inc. in a public statement on Friday. In Blightly’s statement he addressed the recent release of Advertising Inc.’s quarterly earnings statement, sharing that they had experienced a decline of 6% in sales. With economists projecting an additional 7% decline during the next quarter, marketing strategists are scrambling to reach the problematic group of millennials.

Advertising Inc. attributes the decline to a myriad of causes: the suspiciousness of millennials, the crowdsourcing of information, a complete lack of respect for standards of human decency, a lack of desire to support large companies, and a general disregard as to how their spending practices are affecting corporations built upon consumers money. The suspicious nature of millennials is seen in their crowdsourcing internet opinions on products rather than the research backed advertisements.

Blightly responds, “That millennials would choose to trust complete stranger’s opinions over ours is appalling, we know the products the best and have the millennial’s best interests at heart, why can’t they just trust us?” Blightly further expressed confusion at the failure of multiple ad campaigns. “We have used celebrities, jokes, chat speak, famous athletes, and even stooped to using memes; and nothing is working. Sure, we sometimes see a quick spike in a new product’s sales, especially when linked with a famous athlete or internet meme, but as soon as there are a handful of negative reviews on the internet, sales plummet.” Advertising Inc. has declined to further comment on whether the discrepancies between their advertisement’s claims and the product’s reviews on the internet have any basis in reality.

The advertising industry is not the only industry affected by millennial’s fickle buying patterns. The paper napkin industry has seen a decrease in sales of up to 39% over the last five years as millennials have resorted to using paper towels as napkins, reportedly eliminating the need to buy two items rather than one. Louis Denk, a renowned psychologist specializing in the phenomenon of millennials, responds with,

“This indiscriminate use of paper towels as napkins is indicative of the lazy and slovenly attitude prevalent among millennials. Paper towels and paper napkins are in fact two different products, and to go against nature and use one as the other is an affront to the very essence of humanity.”

Karen Plunket, a sociologist and best-selling author of the book: Raising Millennials to be Like You, looks further than paper napkins when she addresses the issue of millennial’s laziness and how it affects the housing market. During our interview with Plunket at her home, we were surrounded with piles of things as Plunket attributed the lower rates of millennial’s buying houses to a decrease in work ethic and a lack of commitment saying,

“Millennials are just not willing to work the hours necessary to pay for a home, surely they wouldn’t need to work more than eighty hours per week, maybe ninety at the most. Which, compared to having children, is a walk in the park. If they could just get off their butts and get themselves hired at a better paying job, then they could afford to buy a house. I just can’t believe that they would rather pay their student loan bills and go to brunch on the weekends, doesn’t everyone want to own a house?”

The negative affect of millennial’s purchasing habits can be further seen in multiple other industries: diamonds, luxury cars, exotic vacations, and expensive recreational equipment. However, no comment was available from the multiple companies we reached out to, and they shall therefore remain nameless. One sales clerk, at a local jewelry store, who when asked why millennials were spending less on diamonds, offered this explanation,

“I have my masters in geology, and I make one dollar an hour above minimum wage, I can’t even buy a diamond for my girlfriend, I have 120,000 dollars in student loans, I am going to be broke until I am dead.”

The manager, overhearing this, came out and fired the sales clerk on the spot for talking negatively about the company in front of a customer. When we reached back out to the sales clerk for further comment he replied in language unfit to be printed here. This episode, while initially fruitless, brought to light the nature of millennials in the work place. The manager who fired the sales clerk was eager to comment, “He [the sales clerk] was obviously unable to deal with the pressure his job required and did not properly respect his position here, so we will give it to someone who will.”

To properly represent the thoughts of millennials themselves, I visited a popular, locally-owned café where I found and talked to several millennials with a wide range of backgrounds. Joe S. is a part-time barista part time waiter who told us, “I wish that I could spend my money on large houses and brand-new cars, but I don’t have any left after I buy avocado toast on Saturdays and go for a few drinks with friends on Fridays.” Joe went on to explain that, “I only make ten to fifteen dollars an hour with tips, and I don’t get full time because no one wants to pay for my medical insurance, which is costing me more than I can afford.” Another millennial was more in tune with the root of her problematic spending habits. Hannah T. told us that it was partly her parent’s fault, “They [parents] raised me to be selfish and only think about what I needed and the people around me, they forgot to teach me to think about donating my money to rich businessmen, and now I struggle with properly supporting millionaires, and now they are suffering because of my selfishness.” Her regrets, however, did not prevent her from eating fruit on a whole grain waffle that alone cost eight dollars, money which could have been used to buy a frozen waffle, supporting any number of large companies who desperately need money.

Multiple parents at the café were also willing to talk with us. We asked one couple with adult children, what was the one thing they would change about their parenting if they could, they looked discouraged as the wife replied,

“I just can’t believe we ended up raising a child who wasn’t a raging consumer. I would do anything to go back and change our parenting tactics, their frugality is ruining multiple industries that are crucial to life as we know it.”

At this point the wife became visibly distraught, so we left her to be comforted by her husband. The owner of the café, Manuel, had an entirely different and startling approach. Manuel praised the spending habits of millennials, saying, “Millennials are how we stay open, I think they are willing to spend a little bit more for quality and to support local businesses than the previous generation who is used to getting everything as absolutely as cheap as it can be and don’t really care who the money goes to.”

Millennials are being held responsible for the negative affect their spending habits are having on large corporations, and people are having mixed reactions. However, this should not discourage people from addressing millennials for their negative spending habits that affect large corporations and multi-billionaires.