Help in store for disabled and elderly in shopping shake-up
DEMENTIA sufferers are set to benefit from a new supermarket scheme to help them with their weekly shop.
The concept, named Slow Shopping, is designed to aid the elderly and disabled.
Customers will be able to rest in chairs at the end of aisles and shop assistants will be on hand to assist.
There will also be two help desks offering free fruit, ginger biscuits and cake.
From today the scheme will be tested every Tuesday between 1pm and 3pm at Sainsbury’s in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. Katherine Vero said she came up with the idea after struggling to shop with her late mother, who suffered from dementia.
She said: “My mum used to love shopping but as her dementia developed it became increasingly difficult and stressful for us both.
“I didn’t want her to stop going out and become isolated. I wondered if there was a way to help.
“I was delighted when Sainsbury’s agreed to help me to trial Slow Shopping. I hope other retailers follow.”
Scott McMahon, deputy manager of Sainsbury’s in Gosforth, said the scheme would also be of value to disabled people.
He added: “When my father developed cancer I saw how hard he found shopping and yet he still wanted to go to maintain his independence.
“So when Katherine approached me about trialling Slow Shopping I was keen to help.
“I knew Sainsbury’s would want to support it. We invest a lot of time in training colleagues in how to help customers with disabilities.
“It meant we were well placed to go the extra step of putting out chairs and manning help points.
“But it’s our colleagues who really make the difference.”
In a survey by the Alzheimer’s Society, eight in 10 of the 850,000 Britons with dementia said shopping was their favourite activity,
But a quarter said they had given up going to the shops since being diagnosed. A worker at Sainsbury’s in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, where the new Slow Shopping scheme will be tested every Tuesday to assist the elderly and disabled