The first baby boomer, according to the National Institutes of Health, turns 65 in 10 years. As it is, many are now over 50 and enjoying membership in the American Association of Retired Persons. For retailers looking for consumers with money to spend and free time to shop, this group, as well as those now over 65, are the ones to watch, according to industry experts.

Both the over-50 and over-65 crowd will grow in the coming decades. The number of people age 65 and older in the United States is expected to peak between 2010 and 2030, when the majority of boomers retire. The 65-plus population group is expected to number about 70 million by 2030, more than twice the number now. The U.S. Administration on Aging counted 34.5 million people over 65 years old in 1999, representing 12.7 percent of a country of 281 million people. One-out-of-every 8 Americans right now is over the age of 65.

Close behind those 65-and-older seniors are the 50-plus crowd. There are about 74 million people in the United States over 50 right now, according to statistics complied by Ken Dychtwald, president and chief executive of Age Wave, a market consulting firm. Dychtwald calls this group "the $9 trillion dollar consumer" because it represents 70 percent of the total net worth of U.S. households.

As a group, according to Dychtwald, Americans over the age of 50 own 77 percent of all financial assets and 50 percent of all discretionary income. They currently represent more than $525 billion per year in direct healthcare spending, a figure expected to grow to $1.1 trillion per year by 2007, according to sources cited by Dychtwald.

Retail pharmacy executives will be interested to know that the 50-plus crowd now accounts for more than 60 percent of all healthcare spending and consumes 74 percent of all prescription drugs, representing an estimated $100 billion market. Those over 55 years of age spend about $467 per capita on prescription drugs, more than double the average and account for 51 percent of all over-the-counter drug purchases.

Dychtwald predicts both the presence and pocketbooks of these vital, seasoned consumers will impact significantly a number of key business sectors, including personal and self-care, food, nutrition and fitness, as well as a wide range of consumer products.

Healthy, wealthy and wise

"In contrast to negative stereotypes of later life characterized by increasing disability, disease and economic hardship, older Americans are generally better off--healthier and wealthier-than ever before," Richard Hodes, M.D., director of the National Institute of Aging, recently testified at a congressional hearing on life span. "Life expectancy in the United States has dramatically improved from an average of 40 years in 1900 to 76 years at the turn of the 21st century." Still, Hodes was careful to point out the encouraging news was not a "universal reality" for all older Americans, defined by him as 65 and older, especially minorities. Eleven percent of older Americans had incomes below the poverty threshold in 1998, according to the National Institutes of Health, compared with 35 percent in 1959. Still, the lowest-income elderly rely on Social Security for more than 80 percent of their income, and there is a large income disparity between older African-Americans and older Caucasians.

There was also a disparity in wealth between women and men. The median income of older men (65+) in 1999 was $19,079, but $10,943 for women, according to the U.S. Administration on Aging. Homes headed by people over 65 reported a median income of $33,148 in 1999. Caucasians with a senior head of household reported a slightly higher median income, while African-Americans and Hispanics reported earnings of $12,000 and $10,000 less per year, respectively.

Stayin' alive

When it comes to older consumers, one of the advantages drug stores have over other retailers is the likelihood their customers will, at some point, need to fill a prescription for one or more ailments. Most older people have at least one chronic health condition, according to the AoA, with the most common being arthritis, hypertension, hearing impairments, heart disease, cataracts, foot problems, sinusitis and diabetes. This has not escaped the attention of drug makers, who said last August that there are nearly 700 new medicines in the pipeline to treat the afflictions of older people.

The sheer numbers of seniors, both current and expected, have the attention of both government and pharmacy decision makers. In declaring May "Older Americans Month," President Bush reiterated his administration's intention to "renew the promise made to our seniors and people with disabilities by providing access to affordable prescription drugs and better options to meet their healthcare needs."

The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists president William Simonson, Pharm.D., urged this commitment to be taken further. "Seniors must have access to a pharmacy benefit, not a drug benefit," he told attendees at ASCP's Geriatrics Midyear Conference in Washington last month. "Any senior-focused pharmacy benefit must provide for patient medication management services to reduce actual and potential medication-related problems, optimize outcomes and reduce costs associated with medication therapy." He went on to tell attendees that "the way we will carve out a new kind of pharmacy practice among the senior population is by identifying those who need our services the most and by responding directly to their needs."