Blog #3: Seniors' Discounts

BLOG # 3: Seniors’ Discounts

When my mind’s not actively engaged in something, it has a habit of wandering. That’s not a bad thing – most of the time. Certainly some of my greatest creative moments or my most brilliant problem-solving moments have come out of that wandering mind of mine. And it has a delightful habit of taking me down rabbit holes. I have long since abandoned the need to do serious research on some of my musings . . . a quick grab for information (yes, think Google) often suffices even though I know that sooner or later I’ll end up at the library doing some serious research because one thing leads to another and another and another and then I really want to know the answer. Google and libraries have a tendency to lead me to rabbit holes; so, apparently, do song birds.

One of the rabbit holes I went down recently was pondering on Senior’s Discounts, wondering if they are just a North American thing, wondering why I cheerfully enjoy getting the discounts (and perhaps what that says about me), and wondering why these discounts exist. What really got me started was listening to the song birds greeting each other this morning. They have no need for discounts and may not have any concept of age, but that doesn’t stop the birds from cheerfully and noisily greeting the morning with happy chirpings . . . and that’s how I ended up going down the latest rabbit hole.

My late father-in-law Bing Thompson (a lovely man) used to chuckle at my interest in seniors’ discounts, and we had many chats about how much I was looking forward to getting a price break on things simply because I’d reached a certain age. Alas, Bing’s been gone almost 8 years, I would have been in my early 50s when he died, and so we never got to celebrate my first seniors’ discount or talk about how that felt.

How did that first discount feel? No idea. It’s so long ago.

Some discounts kick in at 55, others at 60, and some others at 65. I’m never sure whether or not to be pleased when I’m automatically offered a discount. (Although I always appreciated Sunnyside Greenhouse’s approach where the “senior” got to determine whether or not s/he wanted to identify as a senior and request the discount.) Certainly, when I go Smitty’s restaurant in Cochrane I automatically get the discount. I don’t even have to show my non-existent seniors’ discount card. I like to think it’s because I’m well known there. Years of dropping by for a post-Sunday-morning-ride-luncheon has established a certain familiarity and chattiness with the wait staff (many of whom are also horsey), but I do really expect it’s the laugh lines, the stiff-kneed approach to getting up from a chair, and the silver hair that are the giveaway. Or perhaps it’s because I hang out with other young seniors and I’m just scooped up in the process.

In an effort to be sort-of fair, I did the bare minimal amount of research (yes, Wikipedia and Google do count as research under some circumstances) and found this lovely article: http://business.time.com/2012/01/20/why-seniors-dont-deserve-the-senior-discount/. It’s a quick read, American (so take it for what it’s worth in your neck of the woods), and doesn’t apply to me. Doesn’t apply to me because (a) whatever wealthy seniors the author’s talking about doesn’t include me, and (b) I have waited (or will have waited) 55, 60, and 65 years for those discounts and so I feel entitled.

WiseGeek https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-senior-discount.htm offers a definition and reminds us that seniors’ discounts are a marketing ploy to entice seniors to spend money. I’m okay with that.

But all this information still doesn’t address my question about why these discounts exist in the first place and how they came into being. Apparently, the concept goes back to the dirty thirties dust bowl era where seniors were a disproportionately poor group and then-President Roosevelt passed acts that were aimed at financially assisting the elderly. So what happens in the States influences what happens in Canada and that brings me back to my earlier question about whether or not seniors’ discounts are a North American phenomenon.     Apparently, not (who know?). Again, the disclaimer that my “research” is limited but the well-respected travel writer Rich Steves offers a couple of tips, and so I’ll be on the lookout for “concessions” and “pensioners’ rates” when next in England https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/savvy-senior-travelers.

Whatever the history, however clever the marketing behind seniors’ discounts, I love the concept, get a real chuckle every time I qualify for a discount, and if you’re under 55, all I can say is, “Hang in there.” Your turn will come.