On a Friday morning in a large Canadian mall, a woman buys two sweatshirts, jeans, a doormat, baby sleepers, and a leather backpack. Her bill comes to $650.00. She pays cheerfully with a platinum credit card, smiling at the clerk who sports several piercings and a headset. Not a single customer or clerk notices her. Why should they? Well, she is sixty-seven years of age, and except for the baby pajamas, she's shopping for herself at an apparently youth-oriented store. Consumer groups used to be fairly predictable. And in stores like The Gap, Old Navy, or Roots, where this woman just shopped, demographics should be even more predictable. But in the new millennium, consumer patterns are changing rapidly, and retailers must understand and respond to new age groups, new buying habits, and new merchandise mixes