Life in the slow lane - Supermarket innovation aims to make checkout easier to handle

Chris_Alumni

Shopping in your local supermarket can be a stressful experience, particularly if you have an impairment such as autism, or age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's.

To help address this issue, one branch of Tesco in Forres, Scotland, has just introduced a 'relaxed lane' on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. According to the store's manager, as quoted in a BBC News article, "We want [customers] to be confident they can shop at their own pace... It was highlighted to me that people living with dementia can feel under pressure when they reach the checkout, and it struck me that this could be true for others as well."

It is not currently known if the pilot scheme will be rolled out to other branches of the supermarket chain.

What do you think of these 'relaxed lanes'? Would you like to see more of them in supermarkets? Let us know by commenting below.

Fundamentalist

Hi from Fm. What do they mean by "relaxed"? In my long hard and absolutely brutal experience "relaxed" usually means letting people do whatever they like and stirring them up into raucous maniac cackling fits and even encouraging it, just what folk with autism and folk like me with really severe misophonia absolutely DON'T need! I hope tesco's understand that, they should do as I've wrote to them about it enough times, and asda too so they've no excuse. In my experience the checkout is by FAR the worst part of a supermarket as once you start your transaction you're stuck there and can't move until you're finished and that's when the selfish arrogant and totally impunitous loud mouths pounce on you and start lurching into raucous cackling fits right in your EAR! And anyone who does that to me gets told sharpish to cut it out as to me it's a totally unprovoked brutal assault. So if these so-called "relaxed" lanes are going to work they need to somehow be made quiet with a capital Q.  I'm absolutely sick and tired of seeing places like pubs being advertised as somehow "relaxing" when in reality they're absolute hell-holes full of appalling brutal torturing maniacal noise, But then of course that's what pubs are for and I don't have to go in such places but I do have to go shopping, disabled folk have to eat too. And if anyone finds this a bit strong they should try coming shopping with me some time and see for themselves what happens, the last things I need constantly happening right on cue right when I absolutely least need it, over and over again and no, I'm not "paranoid" or anything of the sort, this has gone on for absolutely decades and absolutely never stops, always so meticulously timed and placed. Fm.

bam

I'm sorry you guys have not had a great time doing your grocery shopping. I really enjoy my experience now. I use their electric carts so I don't have to walk around the store which is extremely difficult for me. At the store there's a cashier, who has some kind of disability but I can't figure it out and he's really super nice to me. Since I use those electric carts everyone there is extremely nice to me. They make checking out of the grocery store extremely easy for me. However it was different when I wasn't using the electric carts. When I wasn't using electric carts everything was a little more difficult for me. The store really needs to invest some money in a new cart though. The carts are breaking down all the time now.

Fundamentalist

Hi from Fm. I've no time for "slow" lanes, I have to be in and out of a supermarket FAST! And I never enjoy shopping, it's just a dreadful chore that has to be done and I have to get it over with quick. And I had to use the electric scooters last year as I couldn't walk without crutches because of an injured leg and I couldn't use crutches and carry a basket or push a trolley at the same time. And it's only the bigger stores which have scooters as the smaller stores don't have enough room for them. So in the smaller stores I had to put the basket on the floor and push it around with my foot. Strangely enough the german stores like aldi and lidl don't have any scooters and some of their stores look big enough. And it's no good just one or two checkouts being a bit special, there would still be far too much appalling noise at others nearby if they carried on as normal. No, what they need to do is have an "autism friendly" hour or so each day or at least monday to friday during which time there must be quiet, i.e. no raucous rowdy hysterics or shrieking "whistling" etc. One asda store has already tried something like that and they reported that they turned off machines and escalators during that time but there was no mention of keeping the staff quiet during that time so I wrote to them about  my experiences. Fm.

bam

Hello FM how are you doing? I live in America and there's only one grocery store chain that offers those electric carts for use. I really love those electric carts. The  grocery stores in America are huge. It's really hard with my MS to walk around those stores. At first I felt really uncomfortable with everyone staring at me. The grocery stores in America credit used Lee open around 6 a.m. so to avoid the crowds and the noise I try to go around 7 a.m.. there are hardly any customers in the store that time but the stores are all extremely cold. It was hard to wear a jacket and mittens to survive in it. I really understand how you feel about this. I wished it was a law that grocery stores like that should have electric carts that work.