What can we learn from this question:

My 94-year-old grandmother constantly goes to Walmart and gets candy. I’m worried about her health. Is it possible to tell Walmart to not let her get that item (like to block her from purchasing it)?

First, no you cannot get Walmart to block sales of candy to anyone. They are not the food police.

Secondly, it’s really great that you are worried about her health, that you care for her.

But honey, she’s fricken’ NINTEY-FOUR years old and able to be out and about. She’s obviously found the key to her own happiness and well being. Be grateful you have such a vivacious granny. Spend lots of time with her. She’s made it to 94 and is still active. Absorb her wisdom about life. She’s not blind to how much time she has left here. Enjoy it with her.

The best aspect of living the age of 80 is you no longer have to care how your health is impacted by candy, ice cream, or whatever your guilty pleasure is. It no longer matters what it will do to your health in 20 years. I recall the old George Burns gag about smoking cigars and drinking at the age of 100. Someone asked what his doctors thought about his behavior. He laughed and said that they were all dead.

If your grandma walks around Walmart, then she is still moving. Exercise is far better for her than sitting in a chair or lying in a bed waiting to die. You should celebrate that she still cares enough to go to Walmart and shop for her favorite candy. She has a reason to continue living. It may not be your reason, but let her enjoy the time that she has left.

My 93 year old relative is not often allowed to have sweets by those that care for him.

When nobody is looking, I sneak him some.

He is discouraged from going outside because it’s a little more likely he could fall, and they like to watch him like a hawk.

When it’s just me at their place with him, and he goes outside, I hold my tongue and let him go.

I totally get caregiver burnout, and know that there are consequences to a reckless diet and moving around (having to deal with bathroom concerns, falling, etc.), but I also can’t imagine building an entire family and shaping a community over the span of 90 years and then being told you can’t even eat chocolate. I also know how maddening it is to be controlled when you’re of sound mind.

Old folks are still people, and taking life’s little pleasures almost makes it so that they just exist for others and not their own happiness. She doesn’t have long for this world. Let her enjoy it while she can.

Your mom is 94 years old.

she can go to Walmart by herself alone is a blessing within its self think alone is a blessing within its self think about it okay let the Queen have her sweets!

it’s really great that you are worried about her health, that you care for her.

Be grateful you have such a vivacious granny. Spend lots of time with her.

In the best case she will live for 10 more years, and even that is not likely.

She has every right to eat whatever she wants.

Besides older people really have a sweet tooth.

That is usually because they have a weaker sense of smell and taste, so they go for simple and strong flavors like straight sweet.

Unless she is diabetic (in which case you need to talk to her GP, endocrinologist, and nutritionist first) just let her have whatever she wants.

To begin with, unless your grandmother suffers from dementia or is otherwise mentally incapacitated, you have no say in the matter.

Anyway, what you suggest is absolutely impossible as a practical matter.

A typical Walmart has 3000+visitors every day. Many more if it is a supercenter. Just imagine trying to put a system into place which would enable the greeter to recognize your grandmother and set in motion a monitoring system so that she will not be allowed be allowed to buy candy.

It is hard enough to consistently enforce aged based buying restrictions for the whole population, forget about it as a possibility for one individual.

Instead of worrying about it. I mean she is 94, we are talking borrowed time. If you knew you may only have 5 or 6 years max would you go around carefully picking lettuce greens or would you eat what looked good?

My mom she is 70, shouldn't of made it past 52, but she did. (Thank goodness she didn't have insurance back then. US) So Everytime I go up to the city to see her we make it a weekend trip which means all diets are out the window. So I plan my trips around doctors appointments. But I will try to find the best Chinese and Mexican cuisine in the Kansas City Mo area for my mom while at the same time trying to find the best dessert place in the area for my daughter. Give me books, and video games and I'll be ok in my little corner. But the rest of them are little foodies. And I'm not about to shame them for it.

Let your grandma have some candy. It's probably hard candy anyway and it's just to keep her mouth moist from the medicine she's on. Blood pressure meds, cholesterol meds, blood thinners, diabetes meds all the meds we end up on as we grow older, they can all make you feel like you have a ball of cotton in your mouth. And hard candy helps with that. You're not constantly eating, you're not smoking, and you're not constantly putting liquids in your bladder causing you to have to get up a million times to use the bathroom. So your grandma may have a little method to her madness.

If she was say. 14 years old with a whole live ahead of her, overindulging in ANY unhealthy food (sweets, chips, soda, alcohol, etc.) might have a big impact on her life.

But at 94 years old, there’s not much difference that a bad diet could make. Perhaps it could be the difference between dying at the beginning of the month instead of the end of the month - IOW 2 or 3 weeks difference.

It’s all relative. When you’re young and have possibly 80 years more to go, a 10% difference in your life could be as much as 8 years difference.

But when you’re 94 years old and you have perhaps 2 years left, that same 10% difference would be only 8 weeks. Why not then le her enjoy those last couple of years instead of having a few extra weeks of being unhappy?

Instead of trying to get Walmart involved (it’s unlikely they could do anything anyway - it might even be illegal for them to try to single out one person for different treatment) why don’t you let your grandmother enjoy her last few years and instead spend as much time as you can with her to build up the memories you will one day treasure.

Way back in the early 90’s, my grandmother and grandfather were at the Acme Market buying groceries. She wanted a bag of jelly beans, but my grandfather told her no, she didn’t need any jelly beans (now, she was in good health, and into her late 70’s worked as a nurse doing private duty for “the old folks”)

They walked back to their apartment (which was across the street, and fairly busy) and Pop decided to take a nap. Nana promptly walked back to the Acme and bought the jelly beans. On the way back, a car skidded in the recently fallen snow and hit her. She broke a leg, had a concussion, and as they were loading her into the ambulance, she was quite insistent that the paramedics retrieve her jelly beans, which at this point are scattered across the street.

Well, that bag was not salvageable, but darned if they didn’t go back and get her another bag of jelly beans and bring them to the hospital for her. And every time after that, when Pop would start griping about something, she would reply “You should have let me get the damned jelly beans!”