Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T04:56:55.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Consumption junkies or sustainable consumers: considering the grocery shopping practices of those transitioning to retirement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2015

S. VENN ,
K. BURNINGHAM ,
I. CHRISTIE  and
T. JACKSON
S. VENN*
Affiliation:
Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
K. BURNINGHAM
Affiliation:
Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
I. CHRISTIE
Affiliation:
Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
T. JACKSON
Affiliation:
Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: S. Venn, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK E-mail: s.venn@surrey.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The current generation of older people who are approaching or recently experiencing retirement form part of a unique generational habitus who have experienced a cultural shift into consumerism. These baby boomers are often portrayed as engaging in excessive levels of consumption which are counter to notions of sustainable living and to intergenerational harmony. This paper focuses on an exploration of the mechanisms underpinning the consumption patterns of baby boomers as they retire. We achieve this through an understanding of the everyday practices of grocery shopping which have the potential to give greater clarity to patterns of consumption than the more unusual or ‘extraordinary’ forms of consumption such as global travel. In-depth interviews with 40 older men and women in four locations across England and Scotland were conducted at three points in time across the period of retirement. We suggest that the grocery shopping practices of these older men and women were influenced by two factors: (a) parental values and upbringing leading to the reification of thrift and frugality as virtues, alongside aspirations for self-actualisation such as undertaking global travel, and (b) the influence of household context, and caring roles, on consumption choices. We conclude with some tentative observations concerning the implications of the ways baby boomers consume in terms of increasing calls for people to live in more sustainable ways.

Keywords

ageingretirementbaby boomersconsumptiongrocery shopping
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 14 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arber, S. and Timonen, V. (eds) 2012. Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Policy Press, Bristol, UK.Google Scholar
Bass, S., Caro, F. and Chen, Y.-P. 1993. Achieving a Productive Ageing Society. Auburn House, Westport, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Biggs, S., Phillipson, C., Leach, R. and Money, A. 2007. Baby boomers and adult ageing: issues for social and public policy. Quality in Ageing, 8, 3, 32–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge, Abingdon, UK.Google Scholar
Breheny, M., Stephens, C., Henricksen, A., Stevenson, B., Carter, K. and Alpass, F. 2014. Measuring living standards of older people using Sen's capability approach: development and validation of the LSCAPE-24 (Living Standards Capabilities for Elders) and LSCAPE-6. Ageing & Society. Published online, 20 October 2014.Google Scholar
Burningham, K., Venn, S., Christie, I., Jackson, T. and Gatersleben, B. 2014. New motherhood: a moment of change in everyday shopping practices? Young Consumers, 15, 3, 211–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, I., Hallsworth, A., Jackson, P., de Kervenoael, R., Perez del Aguila, R. and Kirkup, M. 2006. Retail restructuring and consumer choice 1. Long-term local changes in consumer behaviour: Portsmouth, 1980–2002. Environment and Planning, 38, 1, 25–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connolly, J. and Prothero, A. 2008. Green consumption: life-politics, risk and contradictions. Journal of Consumer Culture, 8, 1, 117–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVault, M. 1991. Feeding the Family: The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Elkington, J. 2011. Will Generation Zero Clean Up the Baby Boomers’ Environmental Mess? Available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sustainability-with-john-elkington/generation-zero-baby-boomers-environmental-mess [Accessed 10 July 2013].Google Scholar
Evans, D. 2011. Thrifty, green or frugal: reflections on sustainable consumption in a changing economic climate. Geoforum, 42, 5, 550–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairlie, H. 1988. Talkin’ ’bout my generation. New Republic, 798, 13, 19–22.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y. and Lang, T. 2006. The Unmanageable Consumer. Sage, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. 1996. Consumption and identity in later life: towards a cultural gerontology. Ageing & Society, 16, 4, 489–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2000. Cultures of Ageing: Self, Citizen and the Body. Pearson Education, London.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2005. Contexts of Ageing: Class, Cohort and Community. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2007. The Third Age and the Baby Boomers: two approaches to the social structuring of later life. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2, 2, 13–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, J. and O'Connor, H. 2014. Notions of fantasy and reality in the adjustment to retirement. Ageing & Society, 34, 4, 569–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregson, N., Crewe, L. and Brooks, K. 2002. Shopping, space and practice. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 20, 5, 597–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, A. 2005. The changing availability of grandparents and its implications for childcare policy in the UK. Journal of Social Policy, 34, 4, 557–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronow, J. and Warde, A. (eds) 2001. Ordinary Consumption. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Grundy, E. and Henrietta, J. 2006. Between elderly parents and adult children: a new look at the intergenerational care provided by the sandwich generation. Ageing & Society, 26, 5, 707–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunter, B. 1998. Understanding the Older Consumer: The Grey Market. Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. and Hamilton, C. 2006. Baby boomers and retirement: dreams, fears and anxieties. Discussion Paper 89, The Australia Institute, Canberra City, Australia.Google Scholar
Haq, G., Brown, D. and Hards, S. 2010. Older People and Climate Change: The Case for Better Engagement. Project Report 2010, Stockholm Environment Institute. Available online at http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate-mitigation-adaptation/-oldpeopleandclimatechange100826lowres.pdf [Accessed 2 August 2012].Google Scholar
Haq, G., Minx, J., Whitelegg, J. and Owen, A. 2007. Greening the Greys: Climate Change and the Over 50s. Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York. Available online at http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Future/ClimateChangeandOver50s.pdf [Accessed 22 May 2013].Google Scholar
Harkin, J. and Huber, J. 2004. Eternal Youths. How the Baby Boomers Are Having Their Time Again. Demos, London.Google Scholar
Higgs, P. 2010. Consumption in Later Life: Understanding Older Age Through the Prism of Consumerism. Presentation to CARDI (Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland), 20 May. Available online at http://www.cardi.ie/userfiles/Paul%20Higgs%20Seminar%2019th%20May%202010%20(2).pdf [Accessed January 2013].Google Scholar
Higgs, P. and Gilleard, C. 2010. Generational conflict, consumption and the ageing welfare state in the United Kingdom. Ageing & Society, 30, 8, 1439–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs, P. F., Hyde, M., Gilleard, C. J., Victor, C. R., Wiggins, R. D. and Jones, I. R. 2009. From passive to active consumers? Later life consumption in the UK from 1968–2005. Sociological Review, 57, 1, 102–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchings, R., Collins, R. and Day, R. 2013. Inadvertent environmentalism and the action-value opportunity: reflections from studies at both ends of the generational spectrum. Local Environment, 20, 3, 369–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobson, K. 2008. Reasons to be cheerful: thinking sustainably in a (climate) changing world. Geography Compass, 2, 1, 199–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, P. and Skidmore, J. 2003. The New Old: Why Baby Boomers Won't be Pensioned Off. Demos, London.Google Scholar
Hurd, M. and Rohwedder, S. 2004. The retirement–consumption puzzle: anticipated and actual declines in spending at retirement. Working Paper WP2004–069, University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurd, M. D. and Rohwedder, S. 2006. Some answers to the retirement–consumption puzzle. NBER Working Paper Series 12057, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R. 1981. Postmaterialism in an environment of insecurity. The American Political Science Review, 75, 4, 880–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, P. 1999. Consumption and identity: a cultural politics of shopping. European Planning Studies, 7, 1, 25–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, T. 2006. Introduction. In Jackson, T. (ed.), Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Consumption. Earthscan, London, Chapter 1, 1–25.Google Scholar
Jackson, P., Perez del Aguila, R., Clarke, I., Hallsworth, A., de Kervenoael, R. and Kirkup, M. 2006. Retail restructuring and consumer choice 2. Understanding consumer choice at the household level. Environment and Planning A, 38, 1, 47–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, I. R., Hyde, M., Victor, C. R., Wiggins, R. D., Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. 2008. Ageing in a Consumer Society: From Passive to Active Consumption in Britain. The Policy Press, Bristol, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karisto, A. 2007. Finnish baby boomers and the emergence of the Third Age. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2, 2, 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, K. 2012. Baby Boomers Believe in Sustainable Principles (and Will Pay for Them). Available online at http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/02/29/study-baby-boomers-believe-in-sustainable-principles-and-will-pay-for-them/ [Accessed 10 July 2013].Google Scholar
Kim, J. E. and Moen, P. 2001. Retirement transitions, gender and psychological well-being. Journals of Gerontology, 57B, 3, 212–22.Google Scholar
Leach, R. M., Phillipson, C., Biggs, S. and Money, A. 2013. Baby boomers, consumption and social change: the bridging generation? International Review of Sociology, 23, 1, 104–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundberg, S., Startz, R. and Stillman, S. 2001. The retirement–consumption puzzle: a marital bargaining approach. Labour and Population Program Working Paper Series 01–04, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.Google Scholar
Mansvelt, J. 2010. Learning through consumption: placing ageing through the lifecourse. In Blatterer, H. and Glahn, J. (eds), Times of Our Lives: Making Sense of Growing Up and Growing Old. Probing the Boundaries, Oxford. Available online at http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/making-sense-of/life-cycles/ [Accessed 20 August 2015].Google Scholar
McCarthy, M. 2013. Nature Studies: The Life That Disappeared While Babyboomers Had Their Fun. Available online at http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/nature_studies/nature-studies-the-life-that-disappeared-while-babyboomers-had-their-fun-8636316.html [Accessed 24 April 2013].Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1998. A Theory of Shopping. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 2012. Consumption and its Consequences. Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Miller, D., Jackson, P., Thrift, N., Holbrook, B. and Rowlands, M. 1999. Shopping, Place and Identity. Routledge, Abingdon, UK.Google Scholar
Pakulski, J. and Tranter, B. 2004. Environmentalism and social differentiation: a paper in memory of Steve Crook. Journal of Sociology, 40, 3, 220–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, M. Q. 2001. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Third edition, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Peachey, K. 2014. Pension Reform: 10 Hidden Consequences. BBC News. Available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26666103 [Accessed 20 April 2015].Google Scholar
Pebley, A. R. 1998. Demography and the environment. Demography, 35, 4, 377–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillipson, C., Leach, R., Money, A. and Biggs, S. 2008. Social and cultural constructions of ageing: the case of the Baby Boomers. Sociological Research Online, 13, 3. Available online at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/13/3/5.html [Accessed 22 May 2013].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, D. 2015. The Incoherence Now Underlying UK Pensions Policy. Available online at https://gerontologyuk.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/the-incoherence-now-underlying-uk-pensions-policy/ [Accessed 14 April 2015].Google Scholar
Rose, D. and O'Reilly, K. (eds) 1997. Constructing Classes: Towards a New Social Classification for the UK. Economics and Social Research Council/Office for National Statistics, Swindon, UK.Google Scholar
Scherger, S., Nazroo, J. and Higgs, P. 2011. Leisure activities and retirement: do structures of inequality change in old age? Ageing & Society, 31, 1, 146–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shove, E. 2010. Beyond the ABC: climate change policy and theories of social change, Environment and Planning A, 42, 6, 1273–85.Google Scholar
Smith, S. 2004. Can the retirement consumption puzzle be resolved? Evidence from UK panel data. WP04/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, U.K.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaargaren, G. 2003. Sustainable consumption: a theoretical and environmental policy perspective. Society & Natural Resources: An International Journal, 16, 8, 687–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Street, D. and Crossman, J. S. 2006. Social spending preferences and the elderly. Social Problems, 53, 1, 75–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thane, P. 2009. Old age, consumption, and change over time. In Rees Jones, I., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D. J. (eds), Consumption and Generational Change: The Rise of Consumer Lifestyles. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 81–92.Google Scholar
Thompson, S., Michaelson, J., Abdallah, S., Johnson, V., Morris, D., Riley, K. and Simms, A. 2010. ‘Moments of Change’ as Opportunities for Influencing Behaviour: A Report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. New Economics Foundation, London.Google Scholar
Trentmann, F. 2009. Foreword. In Rees Jones, I., Higgs, P. and Ekerdt, D. J. (eds), Consumption and Generational Change: The Rise of Consumer Lifestyles. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1–20.Google Scholar
Walker, A. 2002. A strategy for active ageing. International Social Security Review, 5, 5, 121–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warde, A. 2005. Consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5, 2, 131–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willetts, D. 2010. The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future and Why They Should Give it Back. Atlantic Books, London.Google Scholar
Wright, S. D. and Lund, D. A. 2000. Gray and green? Stewardship and sustainability in an aging society. Journal of Aging Studies, 14, 3 229–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar