Shopping down memory lane
Retail
Appealing to nostalgia, a retro-themed shopping mall in Tokyo draws in the silver-haired crowds.
Opportunities
The most rapid acceleration in aging will occur after 2010, when the large post-World War II baby boom cohorts begin to reach age 65. Which means that in most European nations, where 60 is considered to be an accepted retirement age, 2005 is kick-off time. What about a whole chain of ‘Silver Malls’ in Vienna, Milan, Seattle and Melbourne?Appealing to nostalgia, a retro-themed shopping mall in Tokyo draws in the silver-haired crowds
Although teenagers may have loads of money to spend, don’t underestimate the purchasing power of the silver-haired crowd. In fact, mature customers have money AND time. So why not give a shopping mall a retro-theme, like the Ichome Shotengai in Tokyo? For older Japanese, this is where you can buy souvenirs from the past, have a snack in a restaurant modeled after the dining car in the first bullet trains, or just feel like you’ve been transported back to the good old days. (Source: NYT.) The mall has done extremely well, attracting both crowds driven by nostalgia, and curious younger shoppers looking for retro-chic. Looking at the numbers from research institute Rand, dreaming up new businesses aimed at seniors is a pretty smart thing to do: the number of people over the age of 65 increased more than threefold since 1950, from approximately 130 million (about 4 percent of the global population) to 419 million (6.9 percent) in 2000. This age group is now increasing by 8 million per year; by 2030, this increase will reach 24 million per year.Opportunities
The most rapid acceleration in aging will occur after 2010, when the large post-World War II baby boom cohorts begin to reach age 65. Which means that in most European nations, where 60 is considered to be an accepted retirement age, 2005 is kick-off time. What about a whole chain of ‘Silver Malls’ in Vienna, Milan, Seattle and Melbourne?28th April 2003