Last night, on ABC’s World News Tonight, I was pleased to see that Kaiser’s Supermarkets in Germany has introduced several innovations to cater to older grocery shoppers. Having commented on the wonders of Stop and Shop’s Peapod home delivery service last week, you might think I am obsessed with groceries. I’m not. Actually, what it points to is a brain trust among marketers in the grocery business. They are taking a low-margin, commodity business and re-inventing it by applying common sense to customer service.

According to ABC, Kaiser’s Supermarkets realized that older shoppers spend more on groceries and therefore should be catered to with magnifying glasses attached to shopping cart handles, seats built into the carts for a quick rest, brighter lighting, sturdy shelving with built-in steps to reach higher shelves and a help button that summons a real person to answer questions or provide other assistance. Of course, all of these service features will prove useful to younger shoppers as well. The full video can be viewed at www.abcnews.com.

These common sense adaptations will do more to bring meaning to the company’s brand than ads, slogans, taglines and logos could ever hope to. I can only hope that gas stations are taking notes.