The city centre as an age-friendly shopping environment: a consumer perspective

Abstract

<p>Urban population ageing has significant implications for city centres catering for an<br />increasing number of older consumers. To guide world cities on taking action in response<br />to population ageing, the World Health Organization (WHO) has addressed the universal<br />features of the age-friendly city. This study applies the WHO guideline to the context of<br />shopping. With an emphasis on older consumers, the perceptions of the city centre as a<br />physical and social shopping environment are studied. Using a qualitative content analysis,<br />older consumers’ perceptions (focus-group participants aged 64–94) are analysed<br />based on the age-friendly city features. The perceptions are compared with those of<br />younger consumers (qualitative-survey respondents aged 21–41). The study confirms<br />the significance of older city shoppers, and suggests their needs and wants should be<br />taken into account in urban development projects. The older consumers differ from<br />younger consumers in their city-shopping behaviour and perceptions in many respects.<br />The age groups highlighted the same themes, but mainly with dissimilar content. This<br />indicates that measures to develop a city centre friendlier to older consumers also benefit<br />their younger counterparts, but for different reasons. It is necessary to understand this disparity<br />to create a city-centre shopping environment that is friendly for different ages. The<br />study offers new perspectives on responding to the challenges that consumer ageing poses<br />to Western cities.<br /></p>