Tesco Tests Weekly Quiet Hour for Shoppers With Autism
In partnership with Autism Parent Empower, U.K. supermarket chain Tesco has launched a six-week trial program to test a weekly quiet hour for shoppers on the autism spectrum and with sensory sensitivities.
The program, which started in January, is currently in its fifth week at Tesco’s Crawley, Sussex location. The sensory-friendly event is held every Saturday from 9 a.m.. to 10 a.m. and features dimmed lights, softer announcements and a staff educated on autism.
The trial program was coordinated after Jo-Ann D’Costa-Manuel, director of Autism Parent Empower and mother to a child with autism, reached out to her local Tesco to see if they would offer a quiet hour. If the program goes well, it will be continued and rolled out to more stores across the U.K.
“We’re delighted that Tesco is trialling an autism-friendly hour in its Crawley store,” Daniel Cadey, autism access development manager for The National Autistic Society, told The Independent. “Like anyone, people on the autism spectrum and their families want to be able to go shopping. But we know that many rely on routine and can find the often busy, loud and unpredictable environment of supermarkets disorientating and overwhelming.
Tesco is the second U.K. supermarket – Asda the first – to feature a quiet hour. In the U.S., Costco offered a quiet shopping event in December for autistic customers in East Peoria, Illinois.
Thinkstock image by danr13