the growing market for bigger buttons

The Growing Market for Bigger Buttons

By FRED BROCK

Published: December 14, 2003

New York Times

I THOUGHT about Richard Nixon the other day as I was struggling to twist

the "easy open" lid off a jar of olives. I remembered reading in a book that

his prescription containers had tooth marks on the childproof caps because,

in frustration, he had tried to gnaw them off.

I know how he must have felt. I finally used a screwdriver to pry the

vacuum-sealed lid off the olive jar. For a fleeting moment I had

considered breaking the jar in the sink and salvaging what olives I could (or resorting to a

lemon peel for my martini).

The higher point here is that many products, and how they are packaged,

ignore the physical limitations of an aging population. I'm a fairly

healthy specimen; however, I often find myself struggling not only with lids but a lot of

other things, like the thick plastic armor that encases most small

electronic products.

It has also taken several months for my wife and I to master just the

basics of the tiny, unclearly labeled buttons on the remote control for a

combination TV-DVD-VCR. I'm still not sure what "zero return" and "repeat A-B" mean.

Sella Palsson of Salt Lake City was so frustrated looking for products

to help her mother see better that in 1999 she started a business called

SeniorShops to sell products to aid older people in coping with everyday problems.

She has a retail store in Salt Lake City, but 95 percent of her business

comes through the Internet

www.seniorshops.com

or the telephone (800-894-9549). In the last three years sales have more

than tripled.

Ms. Palsson is among a growing number of entrepreneurs taking advantage

of the apparent unwillingness of many big manufacturers to tailor their

products to accommodate the graying of America.

"Manufacturers that make packaging that is hard to get into are just not

thinking," she said. "The baby boomers are the largest part of the

population and they're getting older and have money to spend."

One of SeniorShops' most popular products is a cordless phone for people

with hearing and vision difficulties. It amplifies a caller's voice and

has large lighted numbers for dialing. It costs $109.95, plus shipping. Another is

a device called a Videolupe for people with macular degeneration. It can

be hooked up to a television so that magnified images of photographs or printed

material can be displayed on the screen. It's $499.95, plus shipping.

Other popular products include low-cost gadgets for kitchen chores like

opening jars. There are also talking clocks and watches, and even a

talking caller ID device ($36.95) that announces who's calling.

Of course, some of these products are available at big retail stores.

But they are usually not displayed in one place, and finding them can be a

haphazard process.

"What makes companies like us unique is that these products are our sole

focus," said Andrea Tannenbaum, who started Dynamic Living

www.dynamic-living.com

(888-940-0605) as an Internet-only retailer in Windsor, Conn., in 1997.

Since then it has had yearly sales growth of 30 to 40 percent and has expanded

to include catalog sales, which now account for 30 percent of business.

"We've been increasingly moving to catalog sales because many of our

customers don't have access to the Internet," she said.

One of Dynamic Living's most popular offerings is offset hinges that

allow a door to be opened a couple of inches wider for wheelchairs and walkers.

They cost $24.99 a pair, plus shipping.

Lids Off is another big seller. It's an electric jar opener made by

Black & Decker and priced at $39.99. Demand is so strong that the product is

back-ordered.

"I don't think Black & Decker anticipated how popular Lids Off was going

to be," Ms. Tannenbaum said.

She noted that many of these products were not made exclusively for

older people. They could also help those with disabilities or temporary

limitations resulting from an accident or surgery. She is keenly aware that the baby boomers are a prime target for businesses like hers. "Older people will often just get by if products like this

aren't put in front of them," she said. "The baby boomers, on the other hand,

will seek out products to help them because they won't accept limitations as

readily as the older generation. But boomers don't like to think of themselves

as old. So we don't use the words 'disability' or 'senior' on our Web site. We

just say, here's a functional problem and here's a solution to that problem."Connie Hallquist, the owner of an online and catalog store called Gold Violin

www.goldviolin.com

(877-648-8400) in Charlottesville, Va., says her Internet

sales have increased about 25 percent a year since she started in 1999.

But overall business this year has grown threefold because of a marketing arrangement

with QVC, the television shopping channel.

ONE of her big sellers is the Secret Agent Walking Stick ($69, plus

shipping), which has a built-in flashlight and pill compartment.

Big-button remote-control devices for televisions are also popular, along with the Jar Pop, a

device for opening jars; it looks like a cross between a shoehorn and a bottle opener

and costs $5.95. There's also a jumbo caller ID display ($89.95) that

shows a caller's name and phone number in large type.

"We try to stress products that are stylish, well designed and fun;

nobody wants to face shopping in a medical supply store," Ms. Hallquist said.

"I aspire to be the Williams-Sonoma of products that will help people stay independent and active."

Fred Brock is an editor at The Times. His column on the approach and

arrival of retirement appears the second Sunday of each month. E-mail:

fbrock@nytimes.com.

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