General
Maria E. Redo, Who Won Discounts for Older Adults, Dies at 99
She started a nonprofit in New York City in 1971 by asking stores if they would offer reduced prices for people 65 and over. Thousands of retailers said yes.
In 1971, a tenacious activist named Maria E. Redo was walking in her Upper East Side neighborhood chatting with a friendabout the many older people she knew who were struggling financially on fixed incomes, especially as inflation was taking hold.
“I said to her, ‘There’s got to be someone who is able to do something about it,’” Mrs. Redo (pronounced RAY-doe) said in an interview with The New York Times in 1975. “Then I left her waiting and I walked into a toy store.”
She told the manager that older people could not afford to pay for the gifts they wanted for their grandchildren as the holiday season neared. She asked if he would give them a discount. He agreed. The manager of the stationery store next door also said yes.
Within a few weeks, another 53 retailers had signed on, promising discounts of up to 20 percent to people 65 and over who showed their Medicare or half-fare transit cards.
Through the early 1980s, Mrs. Redo built the nonprofit Community Concern for Senior Citizens into a citywide force for securing bargains for older New Yorkers.
