By the time you hit 70, you've gained all those advantages. And a smart consumer passing through different stages of middle and late life also enjoys savings on college courses, museum visits, public transportation, amusement parks and much more. With today's traditional start of the travel and vacation season, the likelihood of active seniors encountering deals targeted to their age group only increases. The 2000 census figures show some 35 million Americans are at least 65 and another 24 million are 55 to 64. Pictures of people in those age brackets are increasingly common in the promotional brochures put out by travel services, airlines and other businesses.
Seniors are more active and healthier all the time.
In the seven years since Ames adopted its senior discounts, Tuesday has overtaken Saturday as the busiest shopping day of the week for the chain. Ames opens early on Tuesdays and puts out free coffee and cookies for the stampede of gray-haired patrons. Extra employees handle the volume of customers. If you do more business, even if you take 10 percent off, you're still making what you should be making. Such discounts are less common at more upscale retailers.