Renowned card retailer, Clintons, have seen a 116% rise in sales of cards designed for those aged 70+, showing surge in shopping habits for older generation gifts.
Surge in 70+ Cards
These findings, reported by Clintons, provoke question around what exactly is behind this trend? Sales patterns suggest that we’re living longer and celebrating more birthdays with our nearest and dearest. In fact, earlier this year, a Norfolk family became the first in Britain to celebrate six generations alive at the same time. Incredible, right? That’s a whole lot of birthday cake and, of course, cards to be bought from Clintons.
It is expected that more than 100,000 cards will be sold to those celebrating 90th, 95thand 100th birthdays in 2017. (The Queen is going to have a hell of a time signing all those 100th birthday cards.) That means that within the next five years we can expect to see great- great grandparent cards adorning the shelves. Some of us are already looking!
Tim Fairs, VP of marketing at Clintons said: “Most people of my generation have no memory of their great-grandparents, yet today many play an active role in family life. It’s great that younger generations have access to the love, experience and history of their elderly relatives and it’s fascinating that demographics are shifting so rapidly. The Queen already has quite a task signing all those letters and cards each year.”
Always remembering occasions
Unsurprisingly, more cards are bought for senior mums than dads; but twice the number of cards are sold to Husband than Wife over the age of 70, suggesting that women never lose the ability to remember those important occasions. Maybe time to give your grandad a gentle nudge and remind him to buy that anniversary card?
Currently, you can apply to get a free birthday or anniversary message from the Queen. This applies to all birthdays from the 105th onwards and every wedding anniversary following the 70th (Platinum) though some have complained at receiving the same card design each year. You’d think she could take a new picture to mark the occasion! According to publicly available data, the Queen sends around 2,000 birthday messages to qualifying centenarians each year and this is set to rise over the next few years.
Clintons has championed a variety of cards which reflect the growing diversity in modern families and relationships. Cards for same sex couples, one-parent families, step-parents and Godchildren are all promoted by the retailer. So, what will be next? As relationships adapt, family life changes and our population continues to change- what cards will fly off the shelf, and what will become a thing of the past?
