Do you shop like a typical person of your age?

Or do you “down” or “up” age the moment you enter the portals of a retail emporium?

As the baby boom generation grows up, the over 55s are predicted to account for a staggering increase in retail sales from £74.6 billion in 2005 to as much as £117.2 billion by 2015.

So reaching and catering for this 'silver shopper' market sector is going to be vital. Recent research, called 'Consumers Over 55: Silver Shoppers Provide a Golden Opportunity', argues that chronological age is increasingly becoming a less useful means of measuring the attitudes and responses of shoppers.

Instead, people’s ‘shopping age’ will be measured by lifestage, household structure, income level, employment status and consumer awareness.

All these factors, according to the research, will have a far greater impact on the way that silver shoppers behave in the future than age itself. The research also shows that financial circumstances and economic security are going to be the biggest driver of all for behaviour change among older shoppers.

In particular, the looming pensions crisis is already knocking the confidence of older generations and changing the way in which even quite affluent silver shoppers behave.

The University of Surrey’s Dr Hayley Myers, who conducted the research with Dr Margaret Lumbers, said: “Polarisation of income is already evident among older consumers, with a large number of people falling into low income groups as they rely on the state pension and many others with private incomes who are happy to spend on themselves and their families.

“This will intensify over the next ten years, with a higher and higher proportion of consumers at each end of the spectrum and fewer and fewer in the middle. And this is likely to result in a polarisation in retail offers with the middle market players struggling to find their core customer in this age group.”

Another factor determining shopping habits is that the baby boomer generation is more “post-materialistic” than younger consumers. In other words, they are more interested in experiences rather than products, and so more likely to divert their time and spending power to leisure activities such as holidays, hobbies and eating out.

It looks as though the mature shopper is beginning to have quite an influence on the future of retail development - at last.

But what’s YOUR take on how today’s shops cater for you and others of your age? We’d love to know. Emil editorial@maturetimes.co.uk.