Older Salespeople's Role in Retail Encounters

Abstract

The study investigated the role of older salespeople for serving older customers, specifically within the retail sales encounter, in two phases (Phase I of focus group interviews and Phase II of survey research). For each phase of the study, differences in customers' attitudes toward older and younger retail salespeople were examined. In general, older customers had more favorable attitudes toward older retail salespeople than toward younger salespeople. The study also demonstrated that greater favorability is not felt for younger sales personnel by younger customers. In fact, both older and younger customers indicated that older retail sales personnel showed more interest in helping them, were more likely to provide clothing information, and showed more respect for them as customers.