Based on the following information answer the 4 questions.

1. You have recently been hired as the assistant manager for a large regional mall in Lexington, Kentucky. One of the first things you notice on an early inspection tour of the mall is a lack of benches in the common areas for the elderly and mothers with babies to sit and rest while shopping. These benches are said to reduce the selling area that the mall can rent to various temporary vendors, such as costume jewelry over the Christmas season.

Last week, you found a memo form your predecessor banning the early opening of the mall commons so that elderly exercise groups cannot use the mall for walking and exercise classes. Such activity would require extra security staff to be present for the walkers in the mall.

Prepare a one-page memo agreeing or disagreeing with the current mall policy and explaining your reasoning.

2. Case: MedExpress Drugstores

There are three locally owned MedExpress Drugstores operating om Rio Bravo, New Mexico, about 20 miles outside of Santa Fe. Until not long ago, Rio Bravo had been basically a retirement town, with adults over the age of 60 accounting for the largest segment of the population. This situation made it fairly simple for MedExpress to target and serve the senior citizen market. Recently, though, the area has experienced a migration of young families and middle-aged couples who wanted to escape the city life. While at one time 50 percent of the populations was in the 60-year and over category, now both the 35 to 45 years age group and the senior citizens group are 35%.

Older consumers were originally attracted to MedExpress Drugstores because they did not have to worry about dealing with many children when shopping, they knew that they would not have to wait in long checkout lines, and they would not have difficulty maneuvering themselves and/or their carts in the extra-wide aisles. Many of these attractions no longer exist. Families with young children have become regular customers of the stores, store traffic has been increasing, and aisle widths have shrunk so that additional shelves can be installed as a means of displaying more merchandise and, ultimately, generating more sales.

Mary Hightower, whose family owns the drugstores, realizes that if the stores continue to operate as they are presently, there is a distinct possibility that older customers will begin shopping elsewhere, especially with the various government-sponsored mail-order health plans available. While she wishes to continue to cater to the loyal senior citizen customers who helped MedExpress Drugstores achieve its current success, she does not want to ignore the potentially lucrative baby boomer market that is beginning to form in Rio Bravo. As Ms. Hightowers assistant, you are to consider and answer the following questions:

• Should MedExpress Drugstores concentrate on only the baby boomer or on the senior citizen market? Both? Neither? Explain your position.
• What type of marketing strategies could MedExpress Drugstores implement that would meet the needs of both age groups?
• How might the changing marketplace affect MedExpress Drugstores merchandise assortment? What types of merchandise might management want to add, delete or expand?
• Should MedExpress Drugstores open an online store to target this market?