Autism Hour in Morrisons Supermarket

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This new initiative has been created with the support of the National Autistic Society. Many people who are autistic or those with autistic children can find shopping in a supermarket an anxious experience. Having carried out a trial earlier in the year in our Lincoln, Woking and Gainsborough stores, we identified improvements that could be made as well as the best time for the Quieter Hour to take place.

Autism Hour in Morrisons

I am glad a lot of places are doing things to make things more autistic-friendly or having autistic friendly days for children. Hopefully one day businesses will take into consideration their autistic adult customers.

this is good news. I loved it when commuter trains introduced quiet cars, too. You don't *have* to be autistic to appreciate a break from the pandemonium now and then!

If you want a quiet hour, be quiet when you get one.

I don't think it's going to work. In the UK there are just millions and millions of people, that it's hard to control crowds and noise. Then people will be bringing their babies and toddlers in there, and nothing and nobody can stop those things from making a noise, but UK society is too over-tolerant of infants and everybody are expected to accept and ignore their ugly squawking and tantrums just because "they're only babies so it's OK". And the sound of babies are actually the number one thing that makes me anxious in supermarkets.

Please excuse my cynicism, but this just strikes me as tokenism. Do the tills and tannoys (which irritate plenty of non-autistic people, too) not have functioning volume controls except by some special incantation that can be used for only one hour a week? Is this not just a tacit admission that the sonic overload is completely unnecessary and only exists to psychologically manipulate customers? Is 9am Saturday really such a good time when up to 2/3 of autistic people have problems sleeping, especially late-onset insomnia? As Joe90 quite rightly points out; are noisy and obstructive customers, who are one of the biggest causes of anxiety for many of us, going to be asked to leave? Will making small purchases be made as economic as bulk purchases for the significant proportion of us who live alone and so end up paying more for everything? Is Morrisons not an organisation which has ruthlessly undercut the small, local shops that would be a far more comfortable shopping experience for many of us? (even the "pound shops" are closing down in Morrisons' home town of Bradford.)

Weasel words. Who are the "many" who "liked the idea" exactly? The autistic people; the "one in five", or the "*...customers who were asked during trial"? Who would answer "no" if asked whether they would prefer "being able to shop in more comfort"?

Around here, many of our Co-op stores now have a pretty little label at the front door saying; "Dementia Friendly". I have yet to find anyone who has noticed anything whatsoever that has changed about any of the stores, their retail practices or staff behaviour to deserve this epithet. It's all very good free publicity, though!

Stop all the stress. Going when quiet helps.