Coming Of Age

The New Age movement is gaining momentum at the same time the baby boomers are moving into middle age-a time in life typically associated with introspection and facing one's own mortality. Coincidence? Many experts don't think so.

And even though more than a few baby boomers are part of the New Age audience today, their impact on the movement is almost certainly eclipsed by the Generation X crowd. For it is the younger consumers-the children of yesteryear's flower children-that are proving to be the prime market for all things ethereal.

"It's a growing movement among younger people," affirms Rick Rowland, 37, co-owner of 20-year-old Nashville, Tennessee, company Music City Marketing Inc., which wholesales New Age products such as American Indian crafts, mineral key chains and crystal balls to retailers worldwide. "The [flower children of the 1960s] were looking for something-enlightenment or whatever. I think it's natural that their children [have] the same curiosities."

"The flower children of the '90s are really going for this," agrees entrepreneur Joe Bonk, 40, of the jewelry and incense burners made from Fimo clay and sold by his Ormond Beach, Florida, company, Going Bonkers Inc. "Incense burners have gone through the roof!"

But the times, oh, how they have a-changed. Although spiritual paraphernalia is still sold in the thousands of New Age shops throughout the country, retailers as diverse as department stores, gift shops, drugstores and theme parks now traffic in the otherworldly as well. "It's so mainstream," says Bonk, "you can sell [these products] in a mall."

Don't criticize what you may not understand, however: We're not talking about Woodstock redux. "The people who grew up in the '60s, when people were [commonly] smoking pot, automatically think incense is used to cover up pot smoke," says Marc Biales, 46, founder of Wild Berry Incense in Oxford, Ohio. "But people who didn't grow up with this experience don't look at it quite the same. They just want to put a fragrance in the room."

This article was originally published in the July 1996 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Coming Of Age.