COVID PUSHES SENIORS ONLINE
E-merchants get biggest boost from elders shopping
NEW YORK — In November, Paula Mont did something new: The 86-year-old, who hasn’t left her New Jersey senior living community in nearly a year, went shopping — online.
Mont used an iPad, equipped with a stylus to help her shaky hands, to buy a toy grand piano for her great-granddaughter. She picked it out from more than a dozen versions of the instrument on Amazon.
“It is like a wow feeling. I found it!” Mont said.
The internet has become a crucial link to the outside world during the pandemic, one that millions of people still don’t have access to. Among older adults, the lack of internet has even impeded their ability to get vaccinated.
But the pandemic has also motivated many who have been isolated at home or unable to leave their senior communities to learn something they may have resisted until now: how to buy groceries and more online.
People 65 and older rang up nearly $187 per month online last year, up 60% from a year earlier, according to market research firm NPD Group’s Checkout Tracking. They still spend less than the total population, who paid about $238 per month, but they are the fastest-growing group of online shoppers by age group.
Shopping is one of a slew of activities that older Americans now have to do over the internet, like doctor’s appointments and socializing via digital video like FaceTime. Such behavior was forced by necessity — older people face the biggest risk of infection, so it’s more dangerous for them to go out.
Retailers are responding. Freshly, which delivers prepared meals, is looking at adding smaller portions and low-sodium options aimed at seniors; grocery delivery service Instacart set up a phone support line; Target’s delivery service, Shipt, is scrapping its $99-a-year fee for some low-income seniors.
Still, there are many barriers.
Nearly 22 million, or 42% of Americans 65 and older, lack broadband at home, according to a 2021 study from nonprofit Older Adults Technology Services. Lowincome and Black and Latino older adults are more likely to be left out, the study says.
“We are asking them to stay at home, and yet a lot of seniors are not connected,” said Lauren Cotter of the Community Tech Network, a San Francisco nonprofit that trains low-income residents on technology.
Diane Shein, 73, from Bonita Springs, Fla., turned to Instacart and Amazon-owned Whole Foods for groceries because of the pandemic.
“I’m not sure how much it costs, but I don’t care,” Shein said. “It’s very easy and safe.”
Instacart president Nilam Ganenthiran predicted that online groceries will be a “new normal” for older people even when the pandemic ends.