What do you want from the shops?

I went to a seminar a couple of weeks ago arranged by the Age UK business network and The Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art. The subject under debate was “The Older Consumer and Retail Space”.

There was much discussion about how older people navigate around shops and the pros and cons of out of town shopping versus the high street.

Chris Kent from the electrical retailer, Comet, gave some interesting insights about how the big retailers perceive the challenges of the people getting older. He summed up the advantages and disadvantages of high street locations versus retail parks as follows:

High Street – Pluses included easy access including via public transport, a familiar and less intimidating environment.  On the negative side, the range and space available were more likely to be limited, parking might be difficult and the smaller stores would mean that staff would be more generalist.

Retail Park – Advantages of out of town shopping were plentiful parking, larger format stores with more space and bigger ranges and specialised staff.  Cons included a more intimidating, noisy and youth orientated environment and lack of public transport.

Do you agree?

However, it is not all about buildings and Chris pointed out that Comet had recognised that the first step to an inclusive approach was service. “We are moving from a commodity market to an experience economy. Understanding the customer is key and the shopping experience needs to be more personal”.

And I think that is right. It is not all about wide aisles and disabled parking spaces and whilst buildings should be designed to reflect the needs of all consumers, it is how it feels to shop in a certain place which determines whether we return.

There are two kinds of shopping – necessity and leisure. For the essentials such as the weekly food shop, we often want a fast, efficient experience such as is provided by the out of town supermarkets.  For leisure shopping, on the other hand, we are more likely to want to browse, stop for coffee, to chat.

Each sort of shopping requires a degree of service although I think we need to be clear that  the sort of service  consumers want as they get older is not necessarily as a result of their perceived disability.  Older consumers are as likely to opt for the high end products as for any “simpler” versions.  My experience is that people want information from people who know what they are talking about so that they can make an informed choice. They do not want to be bedazzled by “offers” and “deals”, the actual benefits of which are difficult to unravel. Clear labelling would be a good start.  

And if you couple that service with a preference for a more personable high street environment, you have a shop with specialist rather than generalist staff. Which is rather different from the high street format in which Comet is currently trading. Which to his credit occurred to Chris as the seminar progressed..