Consumers aged 50 and older say they have experienced little age discrimination (average rating of 2.0 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is none and 5 is a lot), according to the Consumer Network. However, they believe that men aged 55 and older experience a moderate amount of age discrimination (3.0) and that women aged 55 and older experience even more (3.7).
Some sales tactics that other shoppers appreciate feel like age discrimination to older shoppers, such as buy one-get one offers that force them to buy (and haul home) more products than they need, small print and dark backgrounds that make signage and labels hard to read, and checkout lines without benches or back relief for shoppers with ailments.
The sectors that shoppers aged 50 and older believe are most discriminatory (on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 as most discriminatory) are:
• TV programming (4.2);
• Health insurance companies or their associates (3.8);
• Advertising in general (3.7), also specifically cosmetics ads (3.7), department store ads (3.6), food company ads (3.5), and banking ads (3.3);
• Life insurance companies or their associates (3.4);
• Supermarkets or their associates (3.3);
• Plastic surgeons or their associates (3.3);
• Hospitals or hospital staff (3.2);
• Drug manufacturers (3.2);
• Gas station attendants (3.2);
• Department store associates (3.1);
• Newspapers (3.0);
• Banks or their associates (3.0); and
• Caregivers or nurses (3.0).
Source: “Age Discrimination,” The Shopper Report, September 2010, The Consumer Network, Mona Doyle, PO Box 42753, Philadelphia, PA 19101; 215-235-2400; shopperreport@cs.com. Price: $99 for a one-year subscription.
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