| Germans
Offer Lessons in Making Markets Senior-Friendly |
| By Luci Koizumi, Senior Focus Columnist |
| Grocery shopping is a frequent activity for many seniors.
According to an institute that tracks such statistics, the
average 65 and older senior makes two trips per week to a
grocery store. Some make more because they cannot carry much
at one time, have limited space for storing food or visit
the store just to get out in a friendly environment. |
| But grocery stores are not especially friendly to seniors.
One criticism I often hear about grocery stores is that many
items are difficult to reach. Many companies pay a premium
for special placement, so only popular expensive brands are
placed at eye level. Other less popular items are either situated
on bottom shelves or out-of-reach on top shelves. In addition,
freezer cases prominently display boxes of frozen pizzas,
snack items and microwave dinners, but bags of frozen fruit
and vegetables are laid flat, often out of sight, as well
as out of reach. |
| Smaller sizes of some brands are similarly hard to find
and sometimes even harder to reach. Recently I saw a woman
barely able to touch the top shelf where the pint jars of
spaghetti sauce had been stacked. Since she could not reach
the top jar, she had to balance the two jars, lowering them
carefully until she could get her other hand on the top one.
She did it, but it could easily have been "clean up in aisle
5" situation. |
| At one store's dairy case, which is notorious for hard-to-reach
items, a savvy senior was spotted using her cane to advantagehooking
it around the handle of a milk jug to pull it within reach.
I have actually had to plan my purchases of cream at that
store for times I am shopping with a taller friend. |
| Prices are also difficult to read, especially unit prices
that are supposed to help consumers compare different brands
and various sizes. Unit prices are frequently inaccurate or
compare ounces of one brand with pints or liters of another.
Those are not easy to compare quickly even with a calculator.
Location of products also makes price comparisons difficult-just
try to compare the price of "fresh" orange juice with frozen
or bottled. |
| Sale items are often unavailable, even on the first day
of the sale. In store flyers, prices are displayed prominently,
but restrictive conditions and limitations are listed in tiny
print. Large carts, including those featuring cars and trains
for children, make aisles difficult to negotiate. Parents
trying to maneuver them have similar complaints about customers
with walkers, wheelchairs and scooters. Skids of bulky "special
sale" items or staples waiting to be stocked further congest
the aisles. Store layouts require customers to travel the
entire shop and store directories are hard to find, difficult
to read and often outdated. |
| But, it does not have to be that way. For example, a German
grocery chain recently launched Generation Markets, which
cater to seniors by retrofitting supermarkets with better
lighting, wider aisles, non-slip floors, bigger price labels
and smaller packages. |
| And that is just the start. Shopping carts also have been
redesigned to be both lighter and stronger with drop-down
seats that can be used for a quick rest while checking the
shopping list. Magnifying glasses on chains hang from shelves
and shopping carts for reading product labels, and movable
steps and red "help" buttons are positioned conveniently throughout
the store. |
| A "relaxation zone" with comfortable chairs is also available.
This is an amenity I recall fondly in some Chicago supermarkets
where they also served as a centralized area for information
such as recipes, store coupons and small samples, which are
generally scattered in most grocery stores. |
| The Generation Markets appear to be popular in Germany,
and the chain's regional manager told CBS News that store
revenues are already up 30 percent. |
| So why can't local stores provide more amenitiessomething
other than a couple of chairs by the pharmacy and a hard bench
at the front of the store. |
| Managers of local chain stores report they are limited by
what the corporate offices provide (unit price figures, for
example) or require (product placement), but some try to accommodate
the needs of their older or less-able customers. |
| Reston's Hunters Woods Safeway is located near the Fellowship
House and several residences that popular with seniors, so
its serves many customers with mobility or vision disabilities.
My friends who have these conditions have told me that store
personnel at that Safeway usually recognize them and provide
needed assistance. |
| Whole Foods Market at Reston's Plaza America has a convenience
area with small tables and chairs where customers can have
a snack and beverage or where a weary senior can wait while
a friend or relative shops. Demonstrations are occasionally
held there, and there are racks of brochures and recipes.
|
| Harris Teeter offers seniors a 5 percent discount on Tuesdays,
and there are often many employees available to help customers
find specific items and load groceries into their cars. |
| For supermarkets to accommodate the age-related physical
challenges of older adults is not shortsighted. Changes in
range of motion, grip strength, tactile perceptions and the
ability to focus, as well as the need for more light for slow-dilating
pupils, are not limited to seniors. Their presence in the
general population, especially among the large number of aging
"Baby Boomers" who are used to having their needs accommodated,
has sparked a movement in universal design, the concept of
designing beyond the "average" healthy adult. |
| The German grocery chain has recognized and applied this
approach. In Japan, where "quick stop" convenience stores
are an important part of the culture, similar steps are being
taken to make such stores more senior friendly. Should we
be so far behind? |
