So, what will we buy in the Mall?

From Dan Taylor's Parent Care Solution Blog
[this week and last week, author Dan Taylor is our guest blogger; these are some of his past writings]

Wednesday, May 09, 2007
So, what will we buy in the Mall?

I was walking through the mall the other day in Charlotte and it struck me for the first time how so many of the mall shops are devoted to merchandise for people 1/3 my age. It’s not that I would ever vary too much from the khaki’s and Polo I wear most every day anyway, but it would be interesting to have something interesting to consider that would give me the ability to not look like a Justin Timberlake groupie.

It struck me as odd that as a member of a consumer group that allegedly holds 70% of the liquid wealth in the country, purchases 40% of the second homes, makes up 60% of the tithing of most denominations and keeps 90% of the United Way and Red Cross organizations functioning that the only thing that really acknowledges that I’m valuable is that the Cheesecake Factory is really delighted when I come in. They are always happy in the Charlotte store because I think the Turtle Cheesecake qualifies at some level as nutrition (milk, eggs, nuts,). It follows the same logic that lets me believe ketchup is a vegetable.

Here’s what’s really going on: From the mall to housing to medicine to restaurants there is still not a commercial acknowledgement that we are changing as a society. It’s not that aging makes everything over, it just makes it different. My sense is that the great fortunes of the world are going to be made in the businesses that get this and capitalize on it. I don’t think we have to make age the focus…we just have to make it a consideration.

The first consideration as Boomers we can make is to consider how our Parents would like to be talked to and treated as a generation. Take a look at YouTube and its clip by The Zimmers “My Generation”. In addition to being entertaining it’s how your parents look now and how we’ll all look in about 20 or so years. National Parent Care Day (www.parentcaresolution.com) is another way to honor them. Just talking with them would be a start.

The real focus here is to not allow our parents or us as we age to be turned into some sort of objects in the room that are talked about in the third person even though we are there.. Part of the mall experience that I described above is a subtle step toward that type of marginalization. The message is that you become less and less significant as you age except for the money you can supply. In fact, it’s not even important that you spend it…just let your children be the agents for dispensation.

The mall would love it if you just sent the money. They wouldn’t have to have so many benches for people to rest on.

Posted by Dan Taylor

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