Senior Citizen Discounts by Sharon O’Donnell

This past week I was shopping at one of our local department stores, and it happened to be Senior Citizen Discount Day. I realized too late that shopping on this particular day is too stressful and depressing. The clerk in the boys’ dept. said to me as she was ringing up my purchase, “And there’s a discount for senior citizens.” She paused and looked at me and then added, “For those over 55.” She paused again, waiting for my response.
I smiled and said, “Not quite yet.” The woman behind me in line laughed. I did go ahead and ask for the discount anyway since I figured that being put on the spot like that was worth some kind of reward. And she gave it to me.
As I walked out of the store, I saw that this all might be part of an effective strategy by the store because on the way out, you walk past the 50 types of expensive wrinkle creams. Great sales plan. And though I wast tempted, I kept walking. For now anyway. Please department stores — tell your employees not to ASK if someone is a senior citizen or not.