Cool Barriers to Senior Shopper Momentum

Writing in Journal of Aging Studies, researchers from University of Zurich contend that what distinguishes consumers who live happily into their advanced years is a habit of being cool. Senior coolness, they say, is composure and poise which reduces problems of daily living to manageable levels.
     But another set of researchers—these based at University of Borås, Kristianstad University, University of Copenhagen, and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden—find it’s harder to keep your cool when there are barriers to you getting to the cool. The chilled groceries, that is. These researchers watched shoppers and interviewed shoppers, including seniors, in situations where grocery store cooler cabinets either had doors or didn’t have doors.
     The conclusion was that the doors created barriers of various sorts. There was the added challenge for seniors of holding the door open with one hand while reaching for the merchandise with the other. The challenge of navigating a shopping cart to the right location in front of where the cabinet door opens, especially when other shoppers or stocking clerks also were aiming for that prime place. Sometimes, the challenge of selecting the right door to pull open because moisture condensed on the inside of the door glass, clouding a clear view. With some shoppers, a discomfort touching door handles which many others had apparently contaminated already. For these and more reasons, about 75% of the senior shoppers in the study ended up asking others for help retrieving items from merchandise cooler cabinets with doors.
     That’s not to say everybody preferred the no-doors configuration. Some of the shoppers said the doors made the merchandise look more neatly arranged, kept unpleasant food odors contained, and protected the shopper from cold air. That third reason should be of particular interest to retailers serving senior citizens. Compared to younger shoppers, seniors are more likely to feel lonely, and lonely people prefer warmer store environments.
     So the lesson from the study I’d like to pass on is not whether to have doors. The lesson comes from the methodology in the study. The researchers watched the shoppers and talked with the shoppers in order to decide what works best and when. This is what I suggest you do with all your shoppers and especially the elderly. Your senior shoppers may have accessibility and mobility issues which create barriers to purchases you might not be aware of until you observe and interview.

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