What a future - prunes, mincemeat, denture cleaners and adult incontinence

The Nielsen Company’s Homescan consumer facts mid 2009 report contain the most depressing fact I have read in ages. Forget the horrors of the recession or the impending doom of cataclysmic climate change. Forget the threat of Pakistan descending into chaos. Forget the trillions of debt owed by the bankrupt UK.

This fact trumps the lot. There seems to be a high correlation between the food-beverage and general merchandise items that senior (65+) couples buy, and the ones that empty nest couples (50+) buy. This suggests that people start to acquire these tastes as long as 10 to 15 years before they collect their pension.

Look at the list. Good grief is this what my supermarket trolley will (is) containing? What hope? Dick Stroud