By Steve Moran

While at the NIC 2025 Spring Conference in San Diego I came across this story from The Wall Street Journal about how Walmart is crushing the seemingly unbeatable Amazon when it comes to same-day home delivery. 

Here’s a good summary:

2 Lessons

There are two lessons for senior living owners and operators here — one positive and the other one a cautionary tale:

  1. We can beat the competition. Our No. 1 competition right now is the perception that home is better than senior living. While for some people this may be true, often this is a dangerous, life crushing myth that makes older people less happy and less safe.

    Gene Hackman and his wife would have been better off — way better off … and alive — if they had been living in senior living rather than at home.
  2. It’s even easier to stay at home now. This is a stark reminder that we need to tell our story better. We need to be telling stories about people who are having amazing lives because they moved into senior living. 

    We need to be telling stories about how families feel more at peace, can go on with their own lives, and at the same time spend quality time with Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, not having to worry about safety and care.

    Services like same-day delivery make it very easy to stay at home alone. It sounds so good and yet can be so deadly. 

These stories should never depress us, but should always inspire us to dream of what can be and spur us into action.