Shopping for Seniors 6-7a.m.

  Such a great idea---on paper. Senior citizens can shop at specially reserved times in many supermarkets. In theory, the shelves will be fully stocked, the store will have been sanitized overnight, and seniors will have the store mostly to themselves. An added benefit may be to extend this shopping feature to cover the flu season. That would of course add several more months to the program. Sounds good, until you think about the actual institution of such a program
    Those early hours are often dark as night, and the store parking lots pretty much deserted. The seniors arrive. They could look like easy prey to the druggies whose addictions stalk such easy targets, waiting to snatch a purse or two.The seniors, who are mostly women,  have canes, walkers, wheelchairs. Let's hope any accumulations of snow or ice will have been cleared by the maintenance workers.
    The shoppers have been awake for some time prior to their visit. They must adhere to their daily routines---medications, toileting, stretching to get the muscles moving. Some will have to clear the accumulations of snow or frost from their vehicles, which involves scraping and defrosting.And some will take public transportation, busses or cabs, or depend on someone else to drive them . That should pose no problem. "Must get to the store by 7---need groceries."
   These early-shopping expeditions are of course not mandated, not yet anyway. It's not likely that any carding will be in effect. Those who are not seniors could also shop at those times, I suspect. If the stores  re-stock their shelves with toilet paper, it's more than likely that word will get out and legions of rogue young shoppers will converge on the stores and elbow their elders out of the way. The stores will need added security officers, both to deter would-be muggers in the parking lots, and to protect against the youthful hoarders in the aisles.
   But then again, what age defines a senior citizen anyway? Hasn't AARP lowered the age from 50 to 45.
   So this might be a better plan:
          Break down the one-hour shopping window into increments.
              6:00---6:10  Ages from 90 to 100
              6:12---6:15   Ages  from 85 to 89
              6:17---6:20   Ages from 84 to 79
              6:22---6:25   Ages from 78 to 73
              6:27-- 6:30   Ages  from 72 to 67
              6:32---6:35  Ages from  66 to 61
              6:37---6:40   Ages from  60 to 54
              6:42 --6:45    Ages from  50 to 53
              6:47--7:00   The last 13 minutes would be open to those who missed their designated time slots. No penalties would be levied. Be advised that some of the senior shoppers may run over their designated times because they insist on deciding which of their reusable shopping bags be filled with certain items of groceries.