BACKLASH AGAINST SENIORS.

Just when seniors are beginning to break through the barriers of business blindness to their numbers and financial clout, younger shoppers are sounding off. The speed barriers slow-moving seniors impose on younger shoppers are giving rise to irritations and prejudice that threaten seniors' full and equal participation in the marketplace. The scenario is as follows:

* More and older senior shoppers are more active and more evident.

* Most senior shoppers move and drive more slowly than younger shoppers.

* Governments are being pushed to raise speed limits in response to a public that is determined to move faster, regardless of accident rates.

* More younger shoppers are feeling stressed and making minutes count, especially at rush hours.

* The resulting situation is giving rise to more direct expressions of direct anger at slower-moving seniors -- distant from, but related to, the expressions of angry muscle flexing we have come to associate with road rage, nuclear testing, and child gun-slinging.

Here is the kind of comment we are talking about: "Senior citizens who have all day to shop shouldn't come into the store at 4:30 or 5:00 PM when the rest of us are getting off work and trying to run into the store and get some last minute items. And they shouldn't hold up the check outline by paying separately for five items for their neighbor, or digging in their bag for exact change."

"Seniors who chose to live and shop in regular (rather than retirement) communities should not expect younger shoppers and/or retailers to slow down for them."

"Seniors who want to be out at the busiest times should live in retirement areas."

ACTION IDEA FOR RETAILERS:

Super-marketers that have one or more check out aisles equipped to accommodate wheel chairs could try approaches like the following: "Slow-moving shoppers: please use the Handicapped Check Out during rush hour."