Respect Your Elders

Ten million people just in America alone have primary caretaking responsibility for their elderly parents, according to researchers at Oregon State University and Bordeaux Management School. Americans 85 years and older are the fastest growing age segment of the population. Considering this, there are ample opportunities for retailers to profit by caring for the elderly. This will be most successful when the care is delivered with acknowledgement of the common infirmities of the elderly and attention to the distinctive capabilities of the individual service recipient.
     It begins with what you call the elderly person. Researchers at Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium had a range of older consumers evaluate the attractiveness of various names. The participants were comfortable with “senior.” Least popular were “elderly” and “third age.” That latter label appears in uses such as the Third Age Foundation, in which childhood is considered to be the first age and the second age covers family and career. Perhaps the negative reviews for “third age” were because it sounds like something out of a J. R. R. Tolkien book. Hmm, actually that is one place we'll find the term. It was the 3,021 years of the waning of the elves.
     After disciplining yourself to use “senior” instead of “elderly” out of respect, go on to respect the ways in which these service recipients most commonly resist efforts to limit their independence. The Oregon/Bordeaux researchers identified three patterns:

• Continue to do activities, such as driving, which they’d done previously, keeping this hidden from their caregivers. 
• Do a risky activity in front of the caregiver and then argue against restrictions, using their performance as evidence of capability. 
• Pressure the caregiver to participate jointly with the elderly person in performing activities the caregiver has identified as risky, such as by accepting assistance from the caregiver. 

     Not all senior-age service recipients do resist acceptance of their infirmities. But for those who do resist, the third of the three patterns seems safest all round.
     And whenever the jointly performed activities consist of bricks-and-mortar store shopping, patronize the right designs. Shorter aisle lengths require less walking and look less intimidating. Long aisles should be divided up by cul-de-sacs where the senior can choose to step aside to let other shoppers pass. A bench on which a shopper can take a brief break is even better. Small boxes within easy reach complete the package.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Market to Seniors, not to Elderly 
Downsize for Elderly Shoppers