The Vintage Item Younger Generations Don't Want In Their Kitchen

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When it comes to kitchenware and décor, some favorites are evergreen, some are a fad passing by in a flash, and some go out of style only to be revived forty years later. As long as there are people, there will be kitchens, and as long as there are kitchens, there will be discourse about what to put in them. There's no way to accurately predict exactly what will become popular, or suddenly unpopular, but if we did have a crystal ball to tell us the future of food, we think it would say "NO MORE FINE CHINA."

An AP report finds that millennials and Gen Z simply don't connect with the delicate, fine china dinnerware on nearly the same level as the generations prior. Sets of china are practically guaranteed to feature at any garage sale of thrift store, and those looking to collect need not look any further than eBay, where full sets go for less than fifty bucks. "More and more younger people don't see the need to use their space for things that are ceremonial", says one expert, but there are bigger, economical reasons why fine china is going the way of disco and mechanical singing fish.

It's not as if the younger generations reject all kitchen items of old. Quite the opposite, actually: Vintage kitchenware is becoming increasingly trendy. So what makes china so undesirable, with one Reddit user claiming that the "expensive, heavy things that will never get used" will "die out with the older generation"? It has to do with the rapid evolution of culture and household expectations over the last few decades. Stay-at-home wives are less common, and there is less emphasis on preserving a pristine home to show off at weekly dinner parties. Today's average mom is too busy to prepare and attend more formal gatherings, and millennials have no problem using their everyday kitchenware when friends are over, or even on special occasions like Thanksgiving.

It feels like it gets more expensive to live every day, particularly for the younger generations, so dropping a wad of cash on fancy plates that will get used maybe four times a year doesn't seem practical — especially when you can pick up some imitation china for less than two bucks a pop. The status statement of fancy china has almost completely faded, and most youths that have any china are only holding onto them for nostalgia or to honor their loved ones. However, as one expert puts it: "If it sits in the basement and gathers dust, it isn't honoring your grandmother".