Seniors can now shop in peace

Shopping safely in the 'senior shopping hour'
Photo credit: Studio040

Some stores, including Albert Heijn (AH), have set a ‘senior hour‘. This is to minimize the risk of this vulnerable group being infected by this novel strain of the coronavirus. Between 07:00 and 08:00, seniors citizen can peacefully do their shopping.

From yesterday, elderly people could visit Jumbo, AH, and Jan Linders during these hours. They can do their shopping in an empty, freshly sanitized supermarket, with no coughing younger people around them. The shelves will also be restocked with items such as pasta and toilet paper. The supermarkets are following the Italian example.

A Studio040 reporter did a tour of some supermarkets in Eindhoven on Monday morning. It showed that on the first day of the ‘senior hour’, little use is being made of it. Only a handful of customers had made use of this offer.


Is it because they are scared? Are they always up so early anyway? Studio040 wanted to fond out. However, their reporter found it difficult to catch the attention of a passer-by. Especially from the safe 1,5m distance.

Is it a good thing, this senior hour? Or is it stigmatizing? Most seniors did not respond or reject that question. Many of them still shop with groups of people around them. Now and then a customer, wearing a mask, walks by. They make up the cautious part of this early-morning clientele.

The Studio040 reporter tried to approach a shopper outside the shop. She was filling her bike basket with half loaves of bread and packs of milk. The correspondent says they were three meters away, but she starts shouting in fright. “No! Go away!’ she cried in a panic-stricken voice. That is not an official answer, but it is clear – for this lady, the senior hour is a God-sent.



Editor: Melinda Walraven

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