Urban Futures Institute director Andrew Ramlo reminded retailers last week that appealing to wealthy seniors is a growth market. So is appealing to what are now ethnic minorities.
Canadian consumers will increasingly have grey hair and coloured faces in the years ahead, he said after showing some charts at an International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel on February 10.
Ramlo first trotted out the old quote from Boom, Bust and Echo author David Foot: “Demographics explain two-thirds of everything.”
He said, success as a retailer, therefore, will increasingly depend on catering to more seniors and more immigrants from what are now ethnic minorities.
Seniors, Ramlo said, will be particularly enticing for retailers because they will be wealthier than past generations.
“This will be the first generation in history – the post-World War Two [baby ]boom generation – as they age into retirement, they will predominantly retire with dual pensions,” Ramlo said.
“They’ve also had a pretty significant run-up in residential real estate prices.”
As for ethnic minorities, Ramlo’s charts, which were based on Statistics Canada data, showed that the city of Vancouver is expected to increase its visible minority population to 59% in 2031 from 39% in 2006.
That means that today’s visible minority will be tomorrow’s visible majority.