Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:48:34.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2021

Anna-Maija Kohijoki Open the ORCID record for Anna-Maija Kohijoki [Opens in a new window]  and
Katri Koistinen
Anna-Maija Kohijoki*
Affiliation:
Department of Marketing and International Business, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Katri Koistinen
Affiliation:
Centre for Consumer Society Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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

Keywords

age-friendlycity centreolder consumerperceptionshoppingyounger consumer
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 12 , December 2022 , pp. 2735 - 2756
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bromley, RDF and Thomas, CT (2002) Food shopping and town centre vitality: exploring the link. International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 12, 109–130.Google Scholar
Buffel, T (2018) Social research and co-production with older people: developing age-friendly communities. Journal of Aging Studies 44, 52–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buffel, T, Phillipson, C and Scharf, T (2012) Ageing in urban environments: developing ‘age-friendly’ cities. Critical Social Policy 32, 597–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dholakia, RR (1999) Going shopping: key determinants of shopping behaviors and motivations. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 27, 154–165.Google Scholar
European Union (EU) (2016) Urban Europe. Statistics on Cities, Towns and Suburbs. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.Google Scholar
Eurostat (nd) Projected old-age dependency ratio (Database). Available at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.Google Scholar
Finlex (1999) Land Use and Building Act (132/1999). Available at https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/1999/19990132.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, KG and Caro, FG (2014) An overview of age-friendly cities and communities around the world. Journal of Aging & Social Policy 26, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, C, Stachow, G and Cadogan, JW (2013) Conceptualising town centre image and the customer experience. Journal of Marketing Management 29, 1753–1781.Google Scholar
Hovbrandt, P, Ståhl, A, Iwarsson, S, Horstmann, V and Carlsson, G (2007) Very old people's use of the pedestrian environment: functional limitations, frequency of activity and environmental demands. European Journal of Ageing 4, 201–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kitzinger, J (1995) Qualitative research: introducing focus groups. BMJ 311, 299–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohijoki, A-M (2011) The effect of aging on consumer disadvantage in grocery retail services among the Finnish elderly. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18, 370–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohijoki, A-M and Koistinen, K (2018) The effect of the physical environment on consumers’ perceptions: a review of the retailing research on external shopping environment. Architecture and Urban Planning 14, 83–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohijoki, A-M and Marjanen, H (2013) The effect of age on shopping orientation. Choice orientation types of the ageing shoppers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 20, 165–172.Google Scholar
Krueger, RA (1988) Focus Groups. A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Lesakova, D (2016) Seniors and their food shopping behaviour: an empirical analysis. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 220, 243–250.Google Scholar
Lux, M and Sunega, P (2014) The impact of housing tenure in supporting ageing in place: exploring the links between housing systems and housing options for the elderly. International Journal of Housing Policy 14, 30–55.Google Scholar
Mayring, P (2004) Qualitative content analysis. In Flick, U, von Kardorff, E and Steinke, I (eds), A Companion to Qualitative Research. London: Sage, pp. 266–269.Google Scholar
Meneely, L, Strugnell, C and Burns, A (2009) Elderly consumers and their food store experiences. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 16, 458–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitra, R, Siva, H and Kehler, M (2015) Walk-friendly suburbs for older adults? Exploring the enablers and barriers to walking in a large suburban municipality in Canada. Journal of Aging Studies 35, 10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Official Statistics of Finland (nd-a) Population Structure. Available at http://www.stat.fi/til/vaerak/index_en.html.Google Scholar
Official Statistics of Finland (nd-b) Time Use. Available at http://www.stat.fi/til/akay/index_en.html.Google Scholar
Parker, C, Ntounis, N, Millington, S, Quin, S and Castillo-Villar, CF (2017) Improving the vitality and viability of the UK high street by 2020: identifying priorities and a framework for action. Journal of Place Management and Development 10, 310–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenbaum, MS and Massiah, C (2011) An expanded servicescape perspective. Journal of Service Management 22, 471–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidenvall, B, Nydahl, M and Fjellström, C (2001) Managing food shopping and cooking: the experiences of older Swedish women. Ageing & Society 21, 151–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, JD, Olson, K and Millar, MM (2014) Identifying predictors of survey mode preference. Social Science Research 48, 135–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sokolec, J (2016) The meaning of ‘place’ to older adults. Clinical Social Work Journal 44, 160–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steels, S (2015) Key characteristics of age-friendly cities and communities: a review. Cities 47, 45–52.Google Scholar
Stones, D and Gullifer, J (2016) ‘At home it's just so much easier to be yourself’: older adults’ perceptions of ageing in place. Ageing & Society 36, 449–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, C, Gittenberger, E and Schnedlitz, P (2013) Cognitive age and grocery-store patronage by elderly shoppers. Journal of Marketing Management 29, 317–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, C, Wood, S and Floh, A (2016) Adaptive resilience and the competition between retail and service agglomeration formats: an international perspective. Journal of Marketing Management 32, 1537–1561.Google Scholar
Temelová, J and Dvoráková, N (2012) Residential satisfaction of elderly in the city centre: the case of revitalizing neighbourhoods in Prague. Cities 29, 310–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TENK (2019) The Ethical Principles of Research with Human Participants and Ethical Review in the Human Sciences in Finland (TENK 3/2019). Publications of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity. Available at https://tenk.fi/en/ethical-review/ethical-review-human-sciences.Google Scholar
Tuomi, J and Sarajärvi, A (2018) Laadullinen tutkimus ja sisällönanalyysi [Qualitative Research and Contenet Analysis]. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Tammi.Google Scholar
Wallin, A (2019) Eläkeläisten tila. Kaupunkitilan ja eläkeläisten sosiaalisen toiminnan tarkastelu [Pensioners’ Space. Examination of urban space and pensioners' social practice]. Tampere, Finland: University of Tampere.Google Scholar
Wiles, JL, Leibing, A, Guberman, N, Reeve, J and Allen, RES (2011) The meaning of ‘aging in place’ to older people. The Gerontologist 52, 357–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, LC, Alexander, A and Lumbers, M (2004) Food access and dietary variety among older people. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 32, 109–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2002) Active Ageing: Policy Framework. Available at https://www.who.int/ageing/publications/active_ageing/en/.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2007) Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide. Available at https://www.who.int/ageing/publications/age_friendly_cities_guide/en/.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) The Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities. Looking Back Over the Last Decade, Looking Forward to the Next. Available at https://www.who.int/ageing/gnafcc-report-2018.pdf.Google Scholar
Wrigley, N and Lambiri, D (2015) British High Streets: From Crisis to Recovery? A Comprehensive Review of the Evidence. Southampton, UK: University of Southampton and Economic & Social Research Council.Google Scholar