WORD reaches me that the Eden centre in High Wycombe is still doing rather well, despite the harsh economic times. A report this week revealed that 10,500 people per day were shopping at the new shopping mall.

A couple of questions arise from this: who are these people and how come they apparently have money to spend during the credit crunch?

It’s commonly known there is a huge number of millionaires in Gerrards Cross, but surely not 10,500 per day?

Who else, then, would have the kind of disposable income to wander around shops such as the House of Fraser all day, and sip coffee in the numerous little cafes dotted around town?

The answer is simpler than many would imagine. It is the grey brigade, or the empty nesters as they are more commonly called.

Or it is the newly-retired couples, who have no mortgage and no major financial commitments.

They may not be fabulously wealthy, but they have enough in the back pocket from a lifetime of hard graft to enable them to shop to their heart’s content.

In other words, they fit the profile of many of the readers of this newspaper.

They are middle income, middle England and middle-aged. They are a huge tribe of people largely ignored by the trendy advertising industry which is obsessed by all things young.

But ironically, a large proportion of this young target market is mortgaged and in debt to the hilt. Once they buy houses and have kids, they find they have no cash to spare. The best shopping they can do is of the window variety.

Meanwhile, the masses of middle-aged middle Englanders have masses of money to spend on leisure and shopping.

The sooner our youth-obsessed country realises this, the sooner this country will move out of economic crisis.