Russ and I play a game every Wednesday evening. On Wednesdays, the local Publix offers a “Senior Discount” for those over 60, so we always do a little mid-week shopping (I love the free coffee and many BOGO’s, he likes the fresh white bread.) When it comes time to check out, we always wonder…will we get the Senior Discount this time, or not? With his graying hair and my extra weight, I guess we look about ten or fifteen years older than we actually are.
To some people.
Russ’ strategy is to pick the youngest looking cashier, because obviously a very young person will make an assumption that many “older” people are OFFICIALLY OLD. When you’re sixteen, 35 or 40 seems absolutely ancient, so people who look like Russ and me MUST be senior citizens. Usually this works.
However, last week we had a kink thrown into his theory. For some reason, we went to the oldest looking cashier in the place, a woman with a white beehive hairdo and granny glasses on a librarian’s chain hanging from her neck. She was obviously way, WAY older than either of us. And yet, she gave us the Senior Discount!
Here’s my theory: Even though she was an old lady, she probably doesn’t THINK of herself as old. She’s probably in a time warp and thinks she looks like Russ and I do, late forties, early fifties. If she knows she’s 65, then it must follow that people who looks anything like how she PERCIEVES herself to look must be senior citizens, even as she is.
Yes, of course, she could look in the mirror and see that she obviously looks much older than either of us. But who really sees themselves when they look in the mirror? We look in the mirror every day, but it’s only when we’re caught unawares by a photograph of ourselves that we say, “Egads! I look like THAT?!”
Russ and I also think the hit-and-miss nature of our getting the discount might have as much to do with how people handle potentially embarrassing situations as it does with how other people perceive us. Most cashiers probably don’t want to ASK if a customer qualifies for the discount. Someone could become really offended by such a question, if perhaps they were nowhere near being a senior. (Sort of like that old Kellog’s commercial, where the party host gushes, “How wonderful! When are you DUE?” and a second later, much more quietly, “Oh…you’re NOT…”)
On the other hand, if someone IS a senior, and the cashier does NOT give the discount, they could get all ornery and start demanding, “Hey! Are you trying to rip me off or what? I want my discount!”
There’s really no graceful way around this situation. So the best strategy for a cashier, I would imagine, is to make an educated guess and quietly give the discount.
No, actually, the best strategy would be for Publix to post a notice at every register that says “If you are 60 or over and would like to receive your Senior Discount on Wednesdays, please show the cashier your Driver’s License.” Sort of like reverse carding.
On second thought, I don’t like that idea. Russ and I have ten years or more to go till our Driver’s Licenses catch up with people’s perceptions of us. And there’s the potential for a lot of misguided discounts in those next ten years.
