The study identified the groups of products that accounted for the largest part of the income of households with elderly people in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, using data from the Household Budget Survey (POF), in addition to verifying whether the demands of these households, in relation to commerce and provision of services, were met by local businesses. The groups of products with the largest share of the expenses of households with elderly people were housing, food, health and personal care, and transportation. Households with elderly people were satisfied with the fulfillment of their demands and needs by the commerce and service providers in the municipality.

Keywords: households with elderly people, consumption, demands

ANATEL, national telecommunications agency; CNDL, national confederation of shopkeepers; IBGE, Brazilian institute of geography and statistics; INSS, institutenational social security; MG, minas gerais; POF, family budget survey; SPC, credit protection service; ICT, information and communication technology; UFV, federal university of viçosa

At the beginning of this century, Brazil has experienced a different scenario regarding the profile of the elderly consumer, who is now characterized as more active and consumerist and, therefore, as a new segment of the population with market potential, as highlighted by.¹ This contemporary elderly person has a longer life expectancy, lives healthier, works longer, has greater purchasing power, and consumes more, not only out of necessity, but also for pleasure and fun.

However, it must be noted that this reality is not experienced by many elderly people in the country due to its socioeconomic context, marked by economic and social inequalities.

In this paradigm, knowledge of the behavior of elderly consumers becomes relevant, as it can contribute to meeting their demands, as well as to the design of public policies. In addition to its growing size, the elderly population has other characteristics that lead to new business opportunities that have not yet been met. In other words, a new proportion of the population begins to consume differentiated goods and services, whether due to taste or needs, looking for prices and brands that meet their needs, increasing market demand.

Almeida and Kassouf² emphasize that it is important to understand the consumption behavior of the elderly and their families, since this knowledge contributes considerably to the development of public policies. This is because the analysis of family expenditure provides a relevant parameter for measuring the survival of families, especially low-income families.

Considering the factors that influence consumption, it is necessary to highlight the age of the consumer, which is of great relevance, since, Older people, due to taste or need, do not consume the same products and services that they consumed when they were young.^3,4 Due to these and other reasons, the change in the consumption pattern of a population is one of the consequences of the change in the age structure of a country. Income is also one of the factors that most influences consumption. Given its stability, due to retirement and/or pension, the income of the elderly becomes of fundamental importance to the family group, especially in low-income families, causing the family's purchasing power to increase.^2,5

Thus, even though the income of the elderly is often more constant and possibly lower due to retirement, health expenses (medicines, health insurance, among others), food and other products can end up consuming a large part of this income. In this scenario, many elderly people in the country continue in the job market, with or without a formal contract, to obtain additional income and be able to cover all expenses.⁶

In addition to the determining factors for consumption, it is also important to understand the expectations of this consumer in relation to the service provided and the product offered, aiming to achieve their satisfaction. For Goulart et al.⁷ customer satisfaction is the result of organizational activity, directed at consumer behavior, mainly post-purchase behavior, because the more satisfied with the service, the product, and the service, the greater the likelihood of a new purchase.

Furthermore, Almeida and Kassouf² point out that the future effect of the growth of the elderly age segment is the emergence of a significant market niche with a differentiated consumption profile not only in health spending, but also in beauty products, travel, leisure, among others.

Another important issue is how satisfactorily the needs of this elderly population are met by businesses and service providers. Therefore, identifying the demands of households with elderly people and understanding how the market has met them becomes relevant to propose market strategies that benefit both the elderly consumer, in terms of meeting their demands, and the economic sector with the creation of new businesses and provision of services. For Goulart et al.⁷ knowing the expectations of consumers in relation to the services provided is essential to understanding their satisfaction.

In this context, considering that the elderly are potential consumers, studies that identify their consumption patterns as well as those of their families, understand their needs and demands, they are relevant to the extent that the change in the age structure will require market and product adaptations to meet this age segment.

To this end, the present study aimed to identify the groups of products whose consumption represents a significant portion of the income of households with elderly people in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, based on data obtained by the 2019-2020 Family Budget Survey (POF), developed by the Department of Economics of the Federal University of Viçosa, in addition to verifying whether their demands, in relation to commerce and service providers in general, were met by local commerce.

This section presents the theory adopted for the development of this research, namely, the Theory of Consumer Behavior, inserted in Microeconomics, in an attempt to explain the results found by this study, having been written based on the authors Pindyck and Rubinfeld,⁸ with adaptations for better adaptation to the subject object of the research.

The preferences of households with elderly individuals are due to the variety of goods and services available on the market and the diversity of personal tastes, which makes it difficult to describe them coherently. Thus, a household with elderly individuals can compare different sets of items or shopping baskets available for purchase, looking for the one that will provide the greatest possible satisfaction.

To the market basket¹ are sets with determined quantities of one or more goods, which may contain, for example, food items, or a combination of food items, clothing and household products that a consumer purchases per month. Although the choice regarding basket selection and quantity may be arbitrary, the consumer generally selects the market basket(s) that best satisfy him/her.

Households with elderly people must consider prices since they face budget constraints as a result of their limited income. Thus, the purchasing power of households, that is, their ability to purchase goods and services, is determined by income and prices.

However, both income and the prices of goods and services change frequently. Thus, a change in income, either upward or downward, will cause households to increase or decrease their consumption of goods and services. Likewise, when there is a change in the prices of goods and services, households may increase or decrease their consumption of these goods or combine the quantities of each good to be purchased, or choose to save.

Considering preferences and budgetary restrictions, it is possible to determine how households with elderly people choose how much to buy of each product, aiming to maximize satisfaction and considering the limited budget available, assuming that the choice is made rationally.

To be considered satisfaction-maximizing, the chosen market basket must be above the budget line and provide the consumer household with its preferred combination of goods and services. Graphically, household satisfaction maximization can be represented by Figure 1.

Figure 1  Budget line and indifference curve U₂tangents indicating the highest level of rational consumer satisfaction.

Source: Adapted from Pindyck, & Rubinfeld, 2013.

Households with elderly (s) maximize their satisfaction by choosing market basket A. At this point, the budget line and indifference curve U₂are tangent, and no higher level of satisfaction (market basket D) can be obtained. Thus, the optimal choice defines the demand of households with elderly people for the various goods and services.

Based on the assumptions of the Theory of Consumer Behavior, it is understood that each percentage of product that households with elderly people acquire, they do so aiming to maximize their satisfaction based on their budgetary restrictions, thus, the demands of households expressed in the consumption pattern are influenced by this Theory when considering that they, as consumers, are rational, well-informed, have preferences among the various goods and services available, and face budgetary restrictions which impose purchasing limitations on them.

¹¹They are lists with specific quantities of one or more goods (Pindyc; Rubinfeld, 2013).

Type of study

This study is characterized as being of an exploratory-descriptive nature, developed using secondary data, obtained by POF, since these data do not allow to make normative and generalized considerations. In this context of the POF, it was donea cut, especially, of data from households composed only of elderly people and households that contained elderly people in their composition.

The place

The city of Viçosa, located in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, covers a total area of ​​299 km², which has a population of 72,220 inhabitants (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics [IBGE], 2010).⁹ For the year 2020, the population estimated by IBGE was 79,388 inhabitants (IBGE, 2020).

Located in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, the city is characterized by being a university city, which means that local commerce and services are geared towards meeting the demands of employees and students, not only from the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), but also from three other existing private colleges. It is also worth noting the presence of a floating population of approximately 20,000 inhabitants, predominantly made up of university students, as highlighted by Maria et al.¹⁰

Viçosa was selected as the study site for this proposal because the average number of elderly people in the municipality (11.17%) is higher than the national average (10.10%),¹¹ and it is located in a region with an intermediate human development index in the state of Minas Gerais, which is the Zona da Mata mineira.¹² This means that although the latter has been developing gradually, it still has a low per capita income and unsatisfactory performance that is not consistent with its regional potential.¹³

The household budget survey (POF)

The POF aims to measure consumption structures, expenses, income and part of the wealth variation of families, with the purpose of providing information regarding the domestic budget composition and living conditions of the population, as well as the subjective perception of quality of life, and generating databases and studies on the nutritional profile of the population.¹⁴

To develop this study proposal, we chose to use data from the POF carried out in Viçosa, Minas Gerais, by the Department of Economics of the Federal University of Viçosa, from 2019 to 2020, since the national POF does not disaggregate its data into municipalities, that is, it does not provide data by municipality, with data referring to metropolitan regions being its smallest disaggregation. Thus, by using the local POF, it is believed that the study will portray the reality of the population of Viçosa more accurately.

The POF questionnaire applied in Viçosa (MG) was adapted from the national POF questionnaire conducted by IBGE. This adaptation is justified by the high cost of conducting a survey along the lines of IBGE's POF. In terms of sampling methodology, the random selection of households ensured the representativeness of each neighborhood, so that the total number of households interviewed in each neighborhood was proportional to the total number of households in the neighborhood.

The adaptations made to the questionnaire were aimed at adapting it to the reality of the municipality, such as the exclusion and/or inclusion of products relevant to local consumption; the non-investigation of the nutritional profile of the population and the inventory of family assets, among others, since investigating these aspects are not the purposes of the Consumer Price Index of Viçosa (IPC-Viçosa), linked to the Department of Economics and responsible for carrying out the POF. The descriptions and details about the POF in Viçosa (MG) presented below were obtained from Cirino et al.¹⁵

The stratified sampling method was adopted to carry out the POF. The city of Viçosa is made up of 59 neighborhoods and has a total of 40,789 households according to the urban residence registry of the City Hall, used to collect the Urban Property and Land Tax (IPTU). Therefore, each neighborhood was considered as a stratum.

Within each stratum, a systematic sampling was carried out following the criterion of making a random selection by drawing lots for households. The number of questionnaires applied in each neighborhood was distributed relative to the number of households present.

During the POF, 307 households were visited, of which 113 had at least one elderly person living in them, which constituted the sample for this study. The POF questionnaire applied to the households contained, in addition to data regarding profile, income, and living conditions, a questionnaire on expenses in the groups food, clothing, housing, household items, transportation, communication, health and personal care, education, and personal expenses. In parallel, another structured questionnaire was applied on demands, satisfaction, and suggestions of households with elderly people regarding commerce and general service provision in the municipality.

The methodology for obtaining the weighting of consumption groups and identifying demands and satisfaction with regard to consumption in households with elderly people

To fulfill the study objective of identifying the groups of products whose consumption represents a significant portion of the income of households with elderly people in Viçosa (MG), it was necessary to define the share of expenditure of each group of products in relation to the total expenditure of the household with elderly people. This quotient represents, in percentage terms, the weight in the budget of the household with elderly people of each group of products considered.

The methodological procedures adopted to obtain such weights were based on Cirino et al.¹⁵ and are described below.

The general data, made available by the POF, on the characteristics of family units and their income structure were processed through stratified tabular analysis. The information related to consumption was treated specifically, since the objective was to obtain a consumption basket for families with elderly people in their composition.

Thus, having obtained the structure of the income distribution of the family units and identified the families in question, it was possible to find the composition of the consumption basket for this category. To do this, the average monthly expenditure on each product consumed by families with elderly people was calculated, thus obtaining a monthly weighting map.

The data were organized by hierarchizing expenses into groups in order to group expenses into nine consumption categories of the same nature, namely: food, clothing, housing, household items, transportation, communication, health and personal care, education, and personal expenses.

The hierarchy levels, in decreasing order of aggregation, in the POF in question, are: Group, Subgroup, Item and Product. Once this classification was made for the products that make up the basket of goods with their respective expenses, the definition of the weight structures began.

A weighting structure was created for the sample, based on the share of each group's expenditure in the household's total expenditure. By multiplying the quantities of products by their respective costs, the average expenditure of households on each product was obtained, which, when totaled, represents the average cost of the basket of households belonging to the sample. The totalization of the average expenditure of households was done as follows: the sum of the average expenditure on the products that make up an item corresponds to the cost of that item. By adding the costs of the items that make up the same subgroup, the cost of the subgroup is obtained. In turn, the cost of each group is the sum of the costs of the subgroups that make it up. Finally, the sum of the costs of the groups results in the total cost of the basket.

The weight of each group in the consumer basket is the percentage share of its cost in the total cost of the basket. Thus, the sum of the weights of all groups will result in a value equal to 100. The same procedure was adopted to calculate the weights of the subgroups within each group and, so on, until reaching the calculation at the product level, which are the lowest levels for which there are specific weights.

To fulfill the other objective of identifying the demands of households with elderly people in Viçosa, MG, and understanding how the local market has met these demands, a questionnaire was prepared and applied through interviews in households where there was at least one elderly person living, since, given the stability of the elderly person's income, this can change the family consumption structure, as well as contribute to reducing family poverty. Thus, the presence of an elderly person in the family reflects changes in the income and consumption pattern of the family unit.²

The questionnaire contained questions about the demand for a product or service in the past or present, satisfaction with commerce and the provision of services in the municipality, and suggestions for improvements to both.

Consumption of households with elderly people

The data presented in Table 1 allow us to identify the differences between the composition of the groups in the categories “households with elderly people” and “households without elderly people” and refer to the average expenditure of the total household and by consumption groups. The order of weighting of the nine groups for households with elderly people was as follows: housing (29.87%); food (27.17%); transportation (16.70%); health and personal care (16.31%); clothing (2.92%); personal expenses (2.57%); education (2.17%); household items (1.53%); and communication (0.75%).

It is important to highlight that, although the groups that presented the two largest weights in terms of participation in the family budget are the same for households with and without elderly people interviewed, there are important differences in the composition of expenditures when comparing these two categories of analysis. This fact can be explained according to the Theory of Consumer Behavior, since the two categories have different preferences and budgetary restrictions. In this sense, the choices of the categories in terms of consumption (demand) for products are different and, therefore, the weights in question are different.

In relation to the housing group, the subgroup housing expenses stands out (20.30%), in which the products electricity (5.50%), rent (3.46%), internet access (2.55%) and pay TV (0.80%) obtained the highest weightings. It is important to consider that the increase in access to the internet and pay TV in the country has been growing. According to data from the National Telecommunications Agency - ANATEL (2020a),¹⁷ Viçosa has 14,397 pay TV accesses (density of 54.4 accesses/100 households) and 10,893 fixed broadband internet accesses (density of 41.2 accesses/100 households).According to the Information and Communication Technology - ICT Households survey (2019),76% of the Brazilian population uses the internet, with cell phones being the main form of access, and among the elderly, this percentage is 46%, according to National Confederation of Shopkeepers – CNDL¹⁸ and Credit Protection Service - SPC (2018). However, there are inequalities in access to the internet, influenced by income, gender, race and religion (TIC, 2019).

Pay TV consumption is slightly higher in households with elderly people (0.80%) compared to those without elderly people (0.72%), possibly due to the greater availability of free time among retirees. Electricity consumption is also higher in these households (5.50% versus 4.48%), reflecting the greater time spent at home on leisure activities such as watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Internet, among others (World Economic and Social Survey, 2007).

In the food group, expenditures are higher for households with elderly people (27.17%) than for those without elderly people (25.96%), with emphasis on milk and dairy products (3.49% vs. 2.67%), beef (3.40% vs. 2.95%) and cereals, legumes and oilseeds (2.35% vs. 2.14%). This may be related to the need for a diet rich in proteins, minerals and vitamins in old age. Expenditures on eating out are lower in households with elderly people (1.67%) compared to those without elderly people (2.01%), as retirees tend to eat more meals at home, consuming a large amount of variety of primary products, home-made beverages, among others, compared to other age groups, which can result in lower spending on eating out, as highlighted by Fonseca Júnior and Lima.⁶

Schwerdt¹⁹ explains that the drop in consumption after retirement is not only due to the reduction in income, but also to the replacement of the acquisition of goods and services by domestic production and carrying out activities by the family itself, due to greater availability of time.

As for the transport group, although it appears as one of the greatest burdens for households with elderly people (16.70%)were lower than in households without elderly people (18.25%), possibly due to free public transport Brazilian as urban, intercity and interstate public bus as highlighted for those over 65 years of age^3,6 and the reduced need for travel. The increase in the Brazilian vehicle fleet according to the Observatório das Metrópoles²⁰ grew from 77% in 2018 to 105% in 2019. Thus, the transport group has gained relevance in the weights and expenses of Brazilian families.

Regarding the health and personal care group, the weights for households with elderly people are greater than for households without elderly people in the subgroups medicines and pharmaceutical products (4.77% and 1.74%) and health care (3.41% and 0.91%), respectively, reflecting the increase in demand for medical care with advancing age (Almeida; Kassouf, 2004).

Spending on clothing was lower in households with elderly individuals than in households without elderly individuals, with emphasis on clothing (1.77% vs. 2.51%) and footwear (0.80% vs. 1.21%), contradicting the trend of greater fashion consumption by this group. Although this segment is currently considered more consumerist and with greater purchasing power, these consumer items (clothing and footwear) were less relevant for households with elderly individuals in the sample in question. The only category with a higher weight was bed, table and bath items (0.34% vs. 0.20%), possibly due to the needs of the household or illnesses of the elderly residents.

In personal expenses, the most relevant subgroups were personal services (1.29%), including hairdressing and manicures, which become more difficult to perform in old age (Fonseca Júnior; Lima, 2016). The CNDL and SPC report (2018) points out that a growing portion of the elderly have invested more in their appearance, visiting beauty salons and using cosmetics.

In personal expenses, the most relevant subgroups were personal services (1.29%), leisure and sports (0.90%) and other personal expenses (0.38%), with emphasis on personal services such as hairdressing, manicure/pedicure, and barbering, which become more difficult for the elderly to perform (Fonseca Júnior; Lima, 2016), as with advanced age, it becomes more difficult to perform activities that involve physical fitness and domestic tasks. Furthermore, the CNDL and SPC report (2018) points out that a growing portion of the elderly have invested more in their appearance, visiting beauty salons and using cosmetics.

In the education group, households without elderly individuals had a higher weight (3.05% vs. 2.17%), reflecting the developmental stage of the members of these families. However, households with elderly individuals had higher weights in preparatory courses (0.69% vs. 0.08%), postgraduate courses (0.61% vs. 0.11%), high school tuition fees (0.26% vs. 0.14%) and language courses, suggesting that the elderly contributed financially to the education of family members. Although it cannot be said that these investments in education were related to the elderly individual themselves, it can be inferred that, at the very least, they contributed with their income to the education of some member of their household. Although the selected households had elderly individuals in their composition, according to Fonseca Júnior and Lima (2016), such households still suffer from the loss of part of their purchasing power due to adjustments in the products of this group.

The study indicates that in households with elderly individuals, household items such as appliances and equipment had a greater weight (0.54% vs. 0.22%), highlighting stoves (0.15% vs. 0.04%), refrigerators (0.12% vs. 0.06%) and washing machines (0.11% vs. 0.02%). These data may be associated with an increase in the adoption of domestic technologies in households composed of elderly individuals in order to facilitate daily activities. For Costa and Bifano,²¹ technology is seen as a form of help for the elderly, without which the activity becomes more difficult to carry out, providing independence and ease for individuals in daily life. Guimarães (2006) adds that technology becomes relevant for the elderly to the extent that the provision of equipment and home infrastructure services provides greater personal autonomy, safety, comfort and quality of life for them.

In the communication group, the telephone had the greatest weighting (0.73%), with spending on cell phone bills (0.56%) and recharges (0.18%) in households with elderly people. The explanation can be elucidated by the fact that cell phones are designed with younger audiences in mind, even though some models of devices aimed at the elderly segment are already available on the market. According to Hagberg,²² the resistance of the elderly to using new technologies can be interpreted by the limited knowledge and practical experience of this population in dealing with the new.

The results found corroborate those of Neri et al. (2004),who identified that The highest expenditures in households with elderly people involve housing, food and health and personal care, while transportation, clothing and education have a lower weight. Fonseca Júnior and Lima (2016) found a similar pattern in Goiânia (GO), where the elderly directed a large part of their income to housing, transportation and food.

Melo et al.²³ analyzed household arrangements and found that the elderly prioritize miscellaneous expenses, housing, transportation and food, and this study indicates that spending on health and personal care replaced miscellaneous expenses.

Households with elderly people consumed more in food (27.17%), health and personal care (16.31%) and household items (1.53%), reflecting the need for supplemented nutrition, medicines and infrastructure products for quality of life.

On the other hand, the subgroups with the lowest consumption included eating out, bed and bath items, intercity transportation, and school supplies. For Melo et al. (2017), this can be explained by the stage of the life cycle in which the elderly find themselves, where each stage of life requires the consumption of different goods and products to meet the specific needs of each phase.

Finally, when talking about consumption, it is necessary to understand that as we age, habits and needs change due to the demands of age, which implies a change in the individual's consumption pattern, which is influenced by factors such as income, preferences, age, lifestyle, stage of the life cycle, demographic composition, family structure, health conditions and needs, among others.

According to the Theory of Consumer Behavior, consumer choices are made considering their preferences and budget constraints, within the principle of rationality, aiming to maximize their satisfaction. That is, consumers make their choices based on factors such as age, lifestyle, stage of the life cycle, etc., which characterize their preferences; and income, which represents their budget constraint, which also includes product prices.

Demand and satisfaction ofhouseholds withelderly people in relation to trade and provision of services

The study assessed the demands and satisfaction of households with elderly people in Viçosa (MG) in relation to commerce and services provided by companies, service providers and the municipal public administration, obtaining the results described in Table 1. This table presents the most relevant responses obtained in the demands questionnaire applied in households with elderly people.

Among the 113 households visited, 15.93% reported difficulty in finding certain products, especially medicines (38.89%), health accessories (16.67%) and automotive parts (11.11%). In the case of services, 30.97% indicated the need for procedures not available in the city, highlighting medical exams (25.71%), consultations with specialists (25.71%) and surgeries (22.86%).

Regarding specific products that were not available in stores, 3.54% of the responding households mentioned a need, citing cosmetics, insulin and electronic materials. In addition, 1.77% reported a demand for non-existent services, such as eye surgery and public transport apps.

Regarding satisfaction with the store, 61.06% of households approved, while 16.82% showed dissatisfaction, pointing out high prices (31.58%), poor service (15.80%) and little variety (10.53%). Regarding price, Rojo²⁴ explains that this is a determining factor in choosing an establishment, regardless of the consumer's income bracket; service, in turn, is a factor that involves aspects such as clarification, help, attention, and efficiency at the time of purchase; product variety is evaluated based on the continued existence of a certain product, brand or service in the store.

Satisfaction with the provision of services in Viçosa (MG) was lower than satisfaction with commerce. 44.25% were satisfied, while 33.63% reported dissatisfaction, highlighting the inefficiency of the public service (50%) and problems such as lack of commitment from providers (10.53%) and quality of service (7.89%).

When comparing commerce and services, greater satisfaction with commerce was observed, which can influence consumer loyalty. For Goulart et al. (2006), customer satisfaction is the result of organizational activity, directed at consumer behavior, mainly post-purchase behavior. Thus, The more satisfied the customer is with the service, the more likely they are to buy again and recommend the service to other consumers. According to Consumer Behavior Theory, the greater the satisfaction, the greater the demand, if the budget constraint is flexible.

Regarding suggestions for improvements to the retail sector, 56.64% of the households interviewed had no suggestions. Among the 21.24% that suggested improvements, the following stood out: training of attendants (25%), better payment conditions (16.66%) and respect for preferential queues (12.5%). As for services, 53.10% did not suggest improvements, while 23.89% indicated actions such as employee training.(18.52%), better care for the elderly population (11.11%) and improvements in public services, including urban cleaning and hospitals (11.11%) (Table 2).

In the context of organizations, the focus has been on seeking customer satisfaction. Therefore, it becomes important to understand consumer expectations regarding their demands and needs. Meeting these expectations will result in satisfied, loyal customers with the possibility of bringing new customers to the organization.

The results show that a large proportion of the households with elderly individuals interviewed were satisfied with the shops and services provided, given the small percentages of people who needed a product or service that was not provided in the city and the high percentage of satisfaction demonstrated. However, it is important to highlight that the dissatisfaction observed was mostly related to health care, such as medicines, medical exams, consultations, surgeries and specialized services.

It was also observed that there was a certain dissatisfaction with the quality of public services provided in the city, such as cleaning of streets and sidewalks, poor water service, inefficient garbage collection, poor lighting and lack of security, which were highlighted, indicating the need for significant improvements by the responsible public authorities, since some of these appeared as suggestions for improvements.

One suggestion to improve the reception of the elderly in businesses would be to offer places for rest, water and comfort in the establishments. Understanding and meeting the demands of the elderly is essential for market strategies that benefit consumers and boost the economic sector.

It is important to emphasize that satisfying the demands of households with elderly individuals by businesses and service providers is an important issue. Understanding the needs of households with elderly individuals and the elderly themselves, who have become potential consumers, as well as how local organizations have met them, is important for proposing market strategies that benefit both the elderly, in terms of meeting their demands, and the economic sector, with the creation of new businesses and provision of services. Furthermore, knowing consumer expectations is a determining factor in the pursuit of customer satisfaction with a view to positive loyalty and profitability for organizations.^25,26

This study sought to identify the groups of products that consume a significant portion of income of households with elderly people in Viçosa, MG, in addition to verifying whether their demands in relation to commerce and service providers were met.

The study identified that the main expenses of households with elderly people were distributed among the groups housing, food, health, personal care and transportation. Although households without elderly people also spent on these groups, the distribution of resources varied according to the life cycle of the families, since, asAs people age, habits and needs change due to health status, lifestyle and age-related demands, which implies a change in consumption patterns.

Commerce and service providers were meeting the demands of households with elderly people satisfactorily, but public services need to be improved, especially to better support this population. Given the growth of the elderly population as a market niche, understanding their needs is essential to propose economic strategies that benefit both consumers and businesses.

As the Brazilian population ages, the demands of the elderly tend to evolve, requiring the productive sector and governments to develop efficient policies to serve this growing segment of society. Among the points highlighted by the interviewees were attention to the needs of the elderly, respect for preferential queues, parking spaces and training of attendants.

In recent years, Viçosa (MG) has undergone changes, such as an expansion in the supply of products and services, new businesses and improvements in urban transportation, which may contribute to better meeting the demands of the elderly. These factors indicate general satisfaction with commerce and services, although there are opportunities for improvement.

I would like to thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for its institutional support for Brazilian Postgraduate Studies, especially the Postgraduate Program in Domestic Economics at the Federal University of Viçosa.

No funding support has been taken from any organization.

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

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