Elderly shoppers in Newcastle are being given a helping hand with their groceries as Sainsbury’s introduces ‘slow shopping’ at one of its stores.
As part of the new scheme, customers at the Sainsbury’s store in Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne are greeted at the entrance and assisted with their shopping by a member of staff.
Chairs are laid out at the ends of aisles to allow people with limited mobility to rest mid-shop. And there are even two desks where staff serve elderly customers fruit, ginger biscuits and Victoria sponge.
The concept, which is currently being trialled every Tuesday from 1-3pm, was championed by Katherine Vero, who lives in Newcastle and used to find it hard to go shopping with her mother who had dementia.
Research published by the Alzheimer’s Society has found that eight out of ten of the 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK list shopping as their favourite activity.However, since being diagnosed, one in four have given up shopping.
“My mum used to love shopping but as her dementia developed it became increasingly difficult and stressful for us both,” said Vero. “But I didn’t want her to stop going out and become isolated. I wondered if there was a way to help us enjoy shopping.
“After she passed away I was inspired to come up with the idea of slow shopping and was delighted when Sainsbury’s agreed to help me trial it. I hope other retailers will follow.”
Scott McMahon, deputy manager at the Gosforth store, added:“I knew Sainsbury’s would want to support it too. We invest a lot of time in training colleagues in how to help customers with disabilities.”
Over the past year Sainsbury’s has invested over 50,000 hours in training store colleagues in how to help customers with visible impairments and other disabilities such as autism.
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