The Supermarket

So if I'm a supermarket, aren’t you just leaning into your public responsibility, no, maybe your destiny to become the new assisted living adult daycare community for the 21st century? Stay with me on this. Fred Malone did. The 70-year-old slices meats at the Geissler's Market in Granby CT - he’s like Hawkeye Pierce meets Michelangelo, and here in this little New England town he encourages seniors like my dad to stroll around the store this week amidst the 99-degree temps. "Grab a couple grape popsicles" in aisle 13, and “pull up a seat" for a slice of capicola,” Malone says as he hands dad a free slice. A slice of capicola, and a conversation. "It's air conditioned; we have lots of nice cool walking trails, snacks, drinks, and plenty of people to help if you get lost,” which is easy to do but not a bad thing in this supermarket....I suggested the idea and Fred agreed - "yeah, we could add some seating here next to the fruit stand, one of those life-sized Jenga games." But why stop there, I said, how about some shuffleboard down the cleaning products aisle and a space for folks to see the nurse or physical therapist. You could play bocce with apples the way my wife’s Uncle John did with the kids back in Pennsylvania. You could deploy the seniors to take inventory, teach the 16 year old bagger kid Billy a thing or two about holding doors for folks. It's not a half bad idea according to the store manager Kelly Kearns. "Not sure we are licensed medically," she chuckled, "but maybe it's as safe and welcoming as any place - we have more staff and plenty of sweets, people are lonely, many don't have meals." I'll admit it's not a completely original thought - Al Bundy from the 80s TV show Married with Children once took his entire family to the grocery store for the day to beat the heat, pulling up lawn chairs, eating ice cream sandwiches. Heck I suspect Lloyd Dobbler would love the idea - like when Diane Court asked him in Say Anything circa 1989 if their odd coupling could actually work - “No one really thinks it will, do they?" Diane said. "No," said Lloyd. “You’ve just described every great success story.” Like my wife and I on this our 26th anniversary July 3rd--me a short Italian Yankee fan, she an Irish Catholic wearing red socks. But this ingenuity is sort of what healthcare policy and society itself needs, don't you think? Meet the people where they're at, and where they are comfortable. Give them a task. Keep them cool, keep them fed. Tap into people already providing good healthcare. More Fred Malones and Kelly Kearns willing to take a flyer. More supermarkets turned assisted living adult daycare facilities.