Many Brisbane supermarkets are responding to the special needs of elderly shoppers, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
The study, commissioned by lobby group Australian Pensioners' & Superannuants' League and undertaken by Nikki Byrne from the School of Social Work and Social Policy, shows that stores generally are working towards making life easier for older customers.
Measures include providing personal assistance for hard-to-reach items, replacing awkward chest freezers with upright models, providing in-store heating and occasionally electric ride-on shopping buggies for those who find larger stores difficult to negotiate.
'Some have gone to greater lengths than others. For example, four stores from one chain are trialling a shop-at-home system whereby an experienced staff member will visit elderly people at home to discuss their diet, the brands they like and the best means of payment, before personally shopping for a customer,' Ms Byrne said.
'The same staff member is also available at the supermarket to walk around with frail, disabled or other elderly people and help them do their shopping which is then delivered to their home for a small charge.'
Ms Byrne, who holds a BA with a double major in sociology and is now working towards a bachelor of social work, is being supervised by School staff member Dr Deborah Setterlund while on placement at the League.
Yvonne Zardani, State secretary of the League, has been instrumental in highlighting the needs of older people and asked Dr Setterlund to provide a student to assist the organisation in its ongoing work.
Part of that assistance included the supermarket research project which was foreshadowed by a League report last year entitled Seniors &Supermarkets: Strategies and Solutions.
The aim of that report was to examine ways of improving access by senior citizens to supermarkets. A forum attended by 55 interested parties looked at various problems and possible solutions, as did a separate survey of community groups for older people.
The report found that the fastest growing population sector comprised people aged over 65 and the need for access to nutritious food increased as more old people chose to live independently.
Shopping centres were seen as providing valuable points of social contact, often acting as community centres for older people to meet friends and chat.
However, the report identified a number of barriers for old people. These included difficulties in reaching high or low shelves, negotiating large trolleys in narrow crowded aisles, and reading prices and labels, and a lack of seats and toilets in stores.
Suggestions to make life easier for elderly shoppers included lighter trolleys, larger writing on labels, in-store wheelchairs, more seating, home deliveries and aisle buzzers to summon help.
Another of the report's recommendations was to monitor progress in supermarkets and, just over a year later, that work is being carried out by Ms Byrne.
She has been sampling small, independent supermarkets, along with stores in the major chains. Ms Byrne has been talking to managers, staff and some of the elderly customers to see what, if anything, has changed.
'Independent supermarkets have no specific policy towards the elderly but, because of their smaller size, already offer a much more personalised service in which staff and customers know each other,' she said.
One major chain had taken measures such as establishing coffee shops to provide seating and points for social contact, lowering the height of fruit displays, getting rid of troublesome chest freezers, providing wheelchairs in some stores and trialling lighter trolleys in areas where more old people lived.
Delivery services of different kinds, including refrigerated delivery of frozen foods, were also offered.
For further information, contact Nikki Byrne (telephone 3397 6565 [h] ) or Dr Deborah Setterlund (telephone 3365 3028).
