Millennials have grown up shopping at Big Box stores and point/click have it at your doorstep in a day. By 2018, the millennial will outspend Gen X and Baby Boomers. For my hardware store this represents an interesting hurdle as 75% of our customers are Boomers and less than 5% are Millenials. That is where snapchat comes in. Snapchat is the social media platform of choice for the Young Millennial. The question is how do we build trust and a relationship with this crowd so they will be ready to trade with us when the time comes that they are the spending machine that turns our economony. Snapchat has the attention of the younger millennial and allows us to communicate and tell our story to them in an organic manner. The reality is that radio, tv, email, banner ads, billboards are not relevant to these customers. Spamming them with a message of “buy our stuff” will not work. The best way to ensure a future where they are our customer is to communicate with them by providing value in the platform that is important to them. Snapchat has their attention, go there not trying to sell stuff, but trying to connect with people who believe what you believe.