Consumer Behavior of the Elderly

Abstract

The article analyzes consumer practices and strategies of elderly, substantiates the choice of a complex criterion for typologizing consumption strategies, including the main key indicators - economic and psychological characteristics of the choice of a course of action, self-assessment of life satisfaction, the orientation of social expectations. The choice of these indicators is due to the appropriateness of their application in the study of the relationships between consumer behavior, inequality and well-being of older people. The approbation of the complex criterion in the model of the matrix of consumer behavior styles is implemented on the data of sociological surveys of people aged 55+ living in cities and rural areas of the Tomsk region, conducted in 2015 and 2019 within the framework of the scientific project “Assessment and improvement of social, economic and emotional well-being of the elderly” of the International Scientific Educational Laboratory for the Improvement of Wellbeing Technologies of Older Adults at Tomsk Polytechnic University. The analysis of sociological data made it possible to identify the relationship between material well-being and the subjective position of an elderly person, which fixes a certain consumer style. The study also revealed the influence of the factor of the use of electronic technologies on the consumer behavior of the elderly.