Senior Citizen discounts start at age 55 at a significant amount of stores, then considerably more are added at 60, then a few at age 62, and finally at age 65, if you're going to get a discount at a store or restaurant that offers discounts for seniors, than 65 is the last age hurdle that you will need to clear. However, if you were to ask the average man or woman at age 55, whether they felt like a senior citizen at age 55, the universal answer would be no.
Newspapermedia.com did a study on how America shops in which their 2011 paper which was based on the shopping habits of just over 2,500 adults and was conducted in the Fall of 2010, broke the shopping categories down into age groups of 18-34, 35-49, 50-64, and 65+. There were fourteen purchase categories in which the 50-64 age category led in three of them, and the 65+ category lead in zero of them, and finished dead last in all of them. The WSJ reported in 2012 that the age group 25-44 planned to spend $820 on Christmas purchases, but the 45-64 age group was not far behind at $760.
With life expectancy in the USA, at 78.7 years of age, is it possible, perhaps probable, that the moniker "Senior Citizen Discount" in which there are plenty of those discounts available starting at age 55, really just a setup to get those that are 55+ to spend money in particular stores on particular days in order to boost sales at the small expense of an additional discount? The obvious answer is yes. I mean, what's the point of offering discounts at a true seniors' age, such as 70+, when at that age they, for the most part, don't have the energy, the desire, or the interest in shopping like they once did?
After all, President Calvin Coolidge stated that: "…the chief business of the American people is business." Clearly, the senior citizen discount is to get bodies through the door in which many of the businesses, set up their specific senior citizen discount on a specific day in which business is normally known to be on the slow side, such as Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so that the mega-grocery chain Kroger will offer their senior citizen discount on Wednesdays, whereas Ross stores offers theirs on Tuesdays, and Michaels Stores does the same.
For those that have been designated as senior citizens for these promotions, times have never been better, as they can take advantage of the extra discount, feel privileged for having done so and save some money to boot. Senior citizen discounts aren't going away anytime soon, in fact, they are here to stay and probably will continue to expand, the designation of such a discount sounds fair to the average American, because it seems fair to offer senior citizens a discount for all their labor, sacrifice, and work that they have provided throughout their lives. Of course, the discount is democratic, it sure isn't merit-based, and it definitely isn't restricted to toothless little old ladies that can't stand erect anymore.