SHAPE Magazine 1 / 2013 - SCA

MARKET
It’s diffi cult and it hurts when reaching for the products. And why is the text so small?
I can fi nd my way around. It’s not easy
reaching the products on the shelves. The
suit protests and feels heavy. I turn over
a small round container with an orange
label in the refrigerated display, which
has aroused my curiosity.
“Why doesn’t it say anything on it?”
I ask.
“It says Skagen shrimp salad, but the
text is quite small,” says the photographer.
MOST PACKAGES SEEM to present the
same problem. In the meat aisle I fi nd
one on which I can make out a picture
of a cow, but I can’t read the label. Steak
perhaps? I can actually identify a few
products: semi-skimmed milk, candy,
soft drinks, snacks, toilet paper. My diet
would probably not be the healthiest if
I want to see what I’m buying. I’m starting
to get tired. It’s hard work looking
for products you can’t see and reaching
for items on the top shelves. A chair
28 SCA SHAPE 1 2013
wouldn’t be a bad idea. And a WC, as the
age suit is squeezing my stomach. I join
the checkout line. An elderly gentleman
takes something off a shelf near the
checkout, knocking down a whole pile
of chocolate bars in the process. Silent
sympathy. When it’s my turn to pay the
next major problem arises – the chip and
PIN machine. My clumsy fi ngers try to
insert my card.
“Can I enter my PIN now?” I ask the
checkout assistant, who kindly guides me
through the whole process. All the same
I still manage to enter the wrong PIN
and have to start all over again. I wonder
if the other people in line are getting
impatient. Luckily I can’t see their facial
expressions. Outside the store, I tear off
the earmuff s, earplugs and glasses to
get home in one piece on my own. I’m
relieved to have halved my age again, but
I now have considerably more understanding
of what it’s like to be old.
15%
of the population in developing countries
is older than 65 years, rising to
25 percent by mid-century. By 2100,
China, the US, Japan, India and Brazil
will all have more than
1 million centenarians.
WE LIVE LONGER
From the Stone Age up to the
19th century, average life expectancy
was fairly constant at
around 30 to 40 years, mainly
due to high maternal and infant
mortality rates. Since then,
average life expectancy has
doubled in most countries.
Japan has the world’s highest
average life expectancy: 86.5
years for women and 79.6 years
for men.
SOURCES:
UNITED NATIONS POPULATION
DIVISION 2009,
SCB STATISTICS SWEDEN 2012.