Quality of goods and services as perceived by the elderly and the young/middle-adulthood consumers

To understand the consumption behavior of the elderly, an understanding of the elderly's perception of the quality of goods and services must be established. The general purpose of this study is to determine what elderly consumers perceive as quality in goods and services as well as their satisfaction with commodities in the marketplace, as compared with young/middle-adulthood consumers. Data from a nationwide sample collected by Research Forecasts, Inc. for the Whirlpool Corporation is used for analysis in this study. Results indicate that there are some differences between the elderly and young/middle-adulthood consumers in their perceptions of the most important indicators of quality of manufactured goods, their satisfaction with services, and most trustworthy sources of information. As the number of the elderly is steadily increasing in our society, greater attention should be paid by retailers to satisfy this segment.Regina M. Abernathy is Food and Nutrition Specialist Consumer Brands with the Curtis Packing Company, 2416 Randolph Ave., Greensboro, NC 27402. She received her M.S. degree from The University of Alabama in 1985.Mohamed Abdel-Ghany is Professor and Department Head of the Consumer Sciences Department at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0158. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Missouri at Columbia. His current research interests include food demand analysis, quality of life measurements, time allocation, and labor force participation.