[Heyitsrick]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Once again - read what I write, and not what you think I meant. I'm very careful with my words most of the time.

This is what you wrote:

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

The ones who make sure we all know they're refusing to wear them - are mostly seniors. The ones who seem to be oblivious are mostly the grown up adults. Strangely enough, the young adults - the teenagers and young 20-somethings - tend to be more vigilant than any other demographic. They are almost always covering their mouths and noses with a mask in the stores.

You mentioned no percentages or raw numbers. You simply said that in the sub-set of people who are making it clear they are refusing to wear masks, it's "mostly seniors". You're saying that out of the total undefined number of those who fit this description of intentionally not wearing masks and wanting everyone to know, seniors make up the bigger slice of the pie.

I'm merely saying - and quite accurately - that seniors as a demographic are by far the largest group in the area, and it stands to reason that you're going to see more of them engaged in this behavior than smaller groups based on pure demographic percentages.

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

I am referring SPECIFICALLY to my observations about customers in grocery stores. I'm not referring to anything else. My post was in direct response to someone who was ALSO specifically referring to HIS observations about customers in grocery stores.

Grocery stores, as many people may have forgotten in their old age, are open to the public. They are, as many seem to have eliminated from their diminished memories, in areas that have people OTHER than seniors living in them.
The Villages are merely the three corners of three fairly sizeable counties, with major state roads slicing through it.

Area demographics, as some people may have forgotten in their old age, are what they are. And honestly - most people will do grocery shopping fairly close to where they live.

This is from the USDA: "The average household traveled 3.79 miles to their primary grocery, even though the closest store was 2.14 miles way. This was true, with little variation, across all income groups. USDA says this indicates shoppers are sensitive to price, quality, and selection in addition to proximity."

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

People living near the villages also go grocery shopping. Many of those people have kids. Many of those people ARE kids. And those kids sometimes pop into the grocery store. MOST of those kids wear masks. There might be only 10 kids who show up on their own, without their parents, during my shift. But on MOST days - all 10 will be wearing a mask.

Compare to families who come in with adult parents and youths as their kids - there are maybe 30 of those who come in on a daily basis. And of those 30 families - with a minimum of 3 people shopping (so 90 people) only around 70 of them will be wearing masks.

Compare to the hundreds of Seniors I see every day - out of - let's call it 500 individual senior customers who aren't coming in with their spouse or kids or caretakers - only maybe 400 of them are wearing masks. You can do the math.

Yes, I can do the math. Your own observations are making my point about demographics. Anecdotally, you're saying senior shoppers are by far the predominant demographic in the store. And that goes back to my point about numbers - since seniors do make up the greatest share of the area population, it makes sense that you are going to see more of them engaging in this behavior.

I'm not saying that the younger patrons you're observing aren't indicative of that demographic's behavior in other local stores, but it's really a very small number you're citing. One wonders what you would see if 500 of this age group shopped in your store on a given day.