This is my RANT for 2023, in the optimistic hope that things will change for the better in the New Year.
Who on earth wants ‘older’ customers these days? Judging by the ways they act, you would think the answer is —- “not a lot of companies and organisations”. This is in spite of the fact that older people are loyal and own most of the nation’s wealth.
POST OFFICE:- Despite Royal Mail’s best efforts older people still want to send letters and cards. Especially at Christmas ! So Royal Mail scrap the second post; then when that didn’t work, they increased the cost of stamps to incendiary levels; finally they prioritise parcel deliveries, so that your Christmas cards arrive in February. Evidently Royal Mail doesn’t want individual letters going all over the place; they would prefer mass delivery of junk mail, which is much more profitable, even if most people instantly throw it in the bin.
THE RAILWAYS :- We have gone from HS2 promising to rapidly speed up travel, to the rail unions striking to stop it all together. Meanwhile ticket offices were threatened with closures and ticket barriers were erected at platforms. Not to mention unfathomable ticket prices. No wonder passenger numbers have dropped.
SUPERMARKETS :- Customer satisfaction has been replaced by customer confusion as prices escalate and contents shrink. Customer service has been replaced by serve yourself. The only satisfied customers are the shop lifters, who are given a free £200 pass. Older people are at the back of the queue still looking for someone at the till counter.
BANKS :- If you can find one that’s still open, they will take your money, but they won’t pay interest on it, unless they really have to. Oh and don’t come into the branch, they would prefer you to bank on-line. If you want to get your own money back out, you first have to prove who you are with their endless security protocols.
THE NHS :- Wait a minute if you phoned your GP for an appointment, or maybe 10 or 20 minutes, if it’s a Monday; then you’ll be told to ring back tomorrow because all the appointments are taken. If you need an operation on the NHS that can take longer — a lot longer, sometimes a year or two. Unless you’re critically ill, then you’re seen straight away.
THE GOVERNMENT :- They don’t believe they have customers they only have voters, which means they only have to be listened to every four years or so. That’s when you make promises which you never manage to keep. The civil servants aren’t necessarily civil and they certainly don’t consider themselves as servants.
THE BBC :- These guys and gals are in a world of their own. Insulated from the real world by an ever rising standing charge of a license fee for watching TV, whether or not you watch the BBC. They inflate their importance and their salaries and see it as their job to educate the nation in “woke”. To tell us where we are going wrong. Older people are portrayed as grumpy and miserable, which we often are, but we don’t need reminding of it all the time. Any more than we want to watch endless repeat programmes from our earlier years.
The answer to who most wants elderly customers is :-
DIGNITAS !
GrumbleSmiles 
Oh john
What a RANT!! Wonderful, thought provoking and all those memories.
It takes me back to 2005-2007, you with ‘EXTRACARE’ the bathhouse at Stoney Stratford, and then after the informal get togethers, the official Presentation of the proposed RETIREMENT VILLAGES in Milton Keynes, situated at the CORNERSTONE CHURCH HALL In Milton Keynes, for Firstly LOVAT FIELDS, and then Shenley WOOD. Followed by many mornings while they were built, in the Bathhouse, talking of the new residents hopes, and dreams, with the intentions of EXTRACARE Proving homes for life! An instructive and informative period.
The Extracare Charities had developed their ethos of ‘’living for the elderly’’ from their basis of being the Coventry Church Trust, and running retirement combined with care and nursing homes for the elderly within the midlands [Coventry Hinterland]. They called them ‘schemes,’ and in 2005 when The Coventry Church Trust had evolved as the ‘EXTRACARE Charities Trust’ with the concept of Retirement Villages and Schemes, situated in the Midlands and northern England, us the new residents-prospective residents were invited to visit their completed developments as villages and schemes and to meet and mix with their residents. I was a reassuring exercise that we as new prospective residents had made an informed choice of living,
The time is now 31 12 2023 and a chance to make a New years Resolution. WE have made ours, have you??
Back to the Rant, the last word is ‘DIGITAS’ and the BBC, ESTER RANSAN Come to mind? Please death with dignity!!!
It is not the individual concerned it is those around one who maybe, Challenge the ending of a life?
For instance do you/-
ask the questions, may be have you or I been fair, respectfully, honourable to the person on the point of death, can I prove if they survive that I am that better person, and they can go happily to their maker.?
Or again it!! Is society wishing justice, and prolonging life so the ‘Devil’ may adopt this dying soul..
It is a societal problem and one that has been around and asked for many a year. The answer, I have no clue, it is within ones self and to trust one relatives as to the way forward and how to quietly go with dignity out of this world, with ones sincerest wishes and religious beliefs.
The future=Philosophically =EXTRACARE Charities have achieved a lot for which I am thankful. I now wish to turn the world upside down and pose the question- What will happen to the EXTRACRE Charities Retirement village, where they offer 250+ residencies within one complex, [each with multiroom accommodation, 1 or 2, bedroom/wetroom/ lounge/kitchen/ cupboard space, and in some a dinning room/study] for lease/shared or rented ownership.
Hell? what am I on about?? Old age? A little more than that? As a nation within this global world of ours and Our British Nation, what of who or whom are the older population of today? Are they all fit, mentally and physically free form ills, and there again what proportion of the UK Nation are the age groups of the nation today? What difficulties may they present to the UK Society in the next 35 to 50 years, And Once again can the concept and ideals ethos of Extracare Charities support them, or does one look at a different possible future of the EXTRACARE RETIREMENT VILLAGES, such as homes for the younger single person, small family groups?
With respect I beg the question, how does one ensure that besides the concepts, ethos and Ideals of Extracare, continue in the future, with the funds and financial backing to be creative within its ideals. And ‘ETHOS’ The Rowntree, Bourneville charities exist still helping ones fellow residents. I just wish that of Extracare Charitable Trust is not just a dream for its residents, gut that I hope it remains a reality in life for those in society who need assistants’ and help? In the latter stages of life.
A very happy new year with best wishes and lots of kind thoughts, deeds and memories for 2024 to AII!!!