Cognitive age and grocery-store patronage by elderly shoppers

This paper discusses and evaluates the impact of cognitive (or self-perceived) age on grocery-store patronage by elderly shoppers. Cognitive age is seen to be a more accurate reflection of changes related to age and aging than chronological age. Based on self-concept theory, the authors propose that cognitive age moderates the effects of perceptions of store attributes on satisfaction with a store. The hypotheses tests used a sample of 404 supermarket patrons aged 60 and above. The latent construct, cognitive age, was operationalised by six items: feel, look, do, interest, health, and think age. The cognitive ages of our respondents proved to be significantly lower than their chronological ages. To evaluate the moderating effects, we applied the product-indicator approach using variance-based structural equation modelling. The results show that the impacts of product range, manoeuvrability, and atmosphere within the store on satisfaction become significantly stronger with increasing cognitive age. We conclude that cognitive age dimensions influence perceptions and, subsequently, behaviour related to store patronage, and thus contribute to the understanding of the growing segment of elderly shoppers.