I took the GSV shuttle which transports residents of both the apartments and the carriage houses to and from Yoder’s grocery store, Weaver’s retail store, Good’s grocery store and CVS pharmacy Wednesday and Friday mornings and Monday afternoons, in order to gain insight and experience in shopping as an older adult. When I approached the point where the shuttle picks up precisely at 8:34 (I felt like I had a tee-off time at Hershey!)

Once I arrived at Weaver’s with Jim and Marian, Jim took off on his own stating, “I don’t want you hanging around with me, I move to fast.” Marian was happy to have me as her personal shopping assistant, and I was more than pleased to accommodate.

What a delightful experience I had with her. And how much I learned about the difficulties in shopping as an older adult. Marian had read there was a sale on women’s shirts at Weaver’s. Although she obviously knew her way to the ladies’ clothing aisles, the lack of sizable signage prohibited her from seeing which of the aisles housed the “sale” items and which aisles represented the “regularly priced” merchandise.

Once I led her to the sale rack, I asked her how I could help. First, Marian struggled trying to simply pull a shirt or two out of the packed rack; the garments were jammed in so tightly when she tried to pull one out to look at the size, price or style, another would fall to the floor or become entangled with her choice, making it virtually impossible for her to identify whether or not she even wanted to try it on. To make things worse, the floor was slippery cement, so when she leaned over to retrieve the fallen items, she nearly slipped and fell to the hard surface. Once we had wrestled the dreaded shirt out, Marian couldn’t read the tag (and there were so many markdowns and scratch-outs, I couldn’t either!) The price was handwritten on a small paper tag which would be difficult for even the least sight-challenged to read.

Consumers with physical limitations want apparel products and retail environments that work for them. Manufacturers need to satisfy multiple consumers, regardless of their physical ability. Current industry perceptions about disability present the greatest barrier to changing the mindset of manufacturers. Even though it is clear this is an ever-expanding market spending a great deal of disposable income on retail items, we still need “buy-in” for product development.

Why do younger people think about older people the way they do? They are seen as mostly all the same, and yet when you ask people about their grandparents… oh, they aren’t the “typical” senior.

One thing that has continually hit me is that there aren’t any “typical” seniors - just like every 25 year old isn’t the same. We have identified at least 6 distinct groups, and more are coming, but even within those groups they don’t walk in lock-step.

I admit that the people I was most drawn to when I first got here were the ones who looked up and smiled and wanted to talk with me. But as a researcher, you have to seek out every point of view. I was a little anxious at first when approaching a group of women who I would describe as chiseled from stone… they looked even a little upset and definitely didn’t look like they wanted to talk.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was prejudice… I assumed because someone wasn’t smiling that they were standoffish and wanted no one near them. Upon introducing myself and sitting down I engaged the ladies and found them remarkable, funny and full of life… I just didn’t see that when I first looked at them. Since then I have approach everyone with no fear and have left universally with a smile on my face as well as theirs.

Instead of thinking as our own grandparents as different from other seniors, I suggest we all start assuming that every older person is pretty different and cool if we just take the time to stop and find out. Don’t let the lack of a smile at first stop you… their smile is in there just waiting for you.