On the one hand, I can quite see the convenience of a ‘senior mall’, currently being trialled in Japan. Features of a senior mall include wider aisles and slowed down escalators; although please god, help me, when I consider a normal escalator a ‘wild ride’! Senior malls are aimed at the 65+ in particular, where I suppose that a non-rushed shopping experience might be quite a nice thing. On the other hand, however, isn’t the hustle and bustle of a public place what makes you feel part of a community at any age? Community shopping, from local centres to markets, are all about the diversity of not only produce, but customers, too.
Retailers, and not just beauty, are really having to sit up and take notice of the ageing population. We do not shop how our parents shopped and we do not dress how our mothers dressed. In fact, fashion-for-our-age gets more and more ageless as brands such as Zara create across the board clothing that literally any age can – and does – wear. But does that mean that a Zara+, for example, would be a good thing?
When you put senior shopping in the context of Zara, yes, please, I would like a store where there’s no music blaring and clothes aren’t jammed so hard together it’s like trying to prise open a sticky paint tin. I would like wider aisles and I would like a clothes edit that has already taken out the pink crop tops and the leather minis, leaving sophisticated and stylish outfits to choose from.
I wouldn’t necessarily hot-foot it to the senior mall, but Zara+, yes please!
Leave a Reply