Shopping Through Senior Eyes

With a population of adults age 65 and older expected to increase to 71.5 million people by the year 2030, many retailers are considering changes in the way their stores are set up, in order to accommodate senior citizens.  Current store layouts present challenges for older shoppers.  Worsening eyesight makes finding items more frustrating, arthritis complicates browsing and reduced balanced increases the problems with stooping or reaching for products.

Labeling and packaging of items also are being taken into consideration to provide colors and office lighting friendly to consumer with age related vision problems..  Drugstore chains like Rite Aid are revising their private label goods with larger type face and packaging.  Walgreen’s plans to spend some $30,000 to $50,000 per store in the future in creating such changes.  Also over the next year, Walgreen’s plans to install call buttons near heavy merchandise like bottled water and laundry detergent in some stores.  They also plan to put magnifying glasses on store shelves and make the aisle signs clearer.

Kimberly-Clark uses kits that include items to simulate the world as senior  people might experience it to show retailers problems senior consumers might have.  Cardboard glasses in the kit simulate common vision impairments including glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and yellowing of the eye lens from cataracts.  Large rubber gloves simulate the limited manual dexterity brought on by arthritis.  Executives at different retail stores using the kits have worn the glasses simulating glaucoma, macular degeneration or cataracts and realized the printing on their fliers was too small.  Additionally, executives wore yellow-tinted glasses to replicate the yellowing effect of cataracts that comes with age.  This made them realize that yellow labels on bottles were not visible against a bright yellow background.  Additionally, older shoppers could not distinguish between green and blue Kleenex wrapping.  This stimulated manufacturers to use text and images as well as the color to distinguish between tissue versions.

Hopefully as these changes are implemented more retailers will follow the lead of others and make changes in their marketing, packaging, and displays that make shopping for active seniors with vision problems easier. In the meantime seniors who have problems shopping due to vision problems can hopefully find some comfort in knowing some retailers are addressing these problems.

About the author Dr. Richard Meister

Dr. Richard Meister is the Medical Director of the Eye Surgery Center of Northern California. Information on this or other eye caretopics is available from the center at 5959 Greenback Lane, Citrus Heights , CA 95621 . Call them at (916) 723-7400 or visit www.LASERMEISTER.com for more information.
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