They’re
listening to us (at last)
Two surveys don’t exactly make a revolution, but they’re a start. First
we had news that the over 65s are busy spending the kids’ inheritance (and
there’s more on the theme in this month’s feature on Party Pensioners).
Then we learned that computer games are big with the laterlife generation.
Why am I so pleased?
Because at last the people in market research are wanting to know about the things
we like. True, what they really want is to know what
we like to spend our money on, but at least they are coming round to the fact that we are
here and many of us have spending power as well as the leisure time in which to use it. It’s nice to be consulted.
Goodness knows if they’re getting it right. The way I’m reading things, we’re either out
partying, shoring up the travel industry and buying second homes, or we’re
stay-at-homes glued to our computer screens.
Having never played a computer game, I never
thought to ask friends if they have developed a special relationship with them, but I know
plenty of examples of the two-or-more annual
holiday and the second home syndromes.
I also note
that a big subject amongst my generation is inheritance tax. And, as I said in a recent Talkback, many people who
can afford it, do help their children to get on the property ladder. So much for spending the kids’ inheritance.
So the researchers may be getting things wrong. So what?
Sooner or later they will find
out what we really really want. I’ll list
a few ideas of my own and you can email me with your ideas.
How about, for a start:
restaurants with soft
furnishings so the noise levels are reduced
plays, films, novels that
reflect the preoccupations and lifestyles of fifty, sixty and seventy-somethings (some of
the stuff our counsellor Maggi Stamp writes about could be suitable sources of
inspiration)
health clubs and gyms offering
more choices of exercise classes to laterlife clients accompanied by the kind of music
they like
fashion designers putting their creative minds to the challenges of
thicker waistlines, pot bellies, flabby upper arms, not-so-shapely cleavages
ditto lingerie designers
ditto sportswear designers
Your turn now: email me on helen@laterlife.com
Oh yes, and have a very happy
new year..
|
Talkback is a regular
feature in laterlife.com run by journalist and author Helen Franks. 
