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Australia' Woolworths expanding quiet hour

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ASPartOfMe
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26 Aug 2019, 1:09 am

Woolworths expands Quiet Hour following successful trial

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After a successful trial in NSW and the ACT, Woolworths is rolling out low-sensory shopping experience Quiet Hour to more stores across Australia.

Over 260 Woolworths stores will dim their lights, turn down the volume of phones, registers and radio, and turn off oven buzzers for an hour every Tuesday between 10:30am and 11:30am to reduce anxiety and sensory stress for customers.

In addition, roll cages will be removed and there will be no PA announcements in-store unless there’s an emergency.

In March, rival supermarket Coles added ‘Quiet Hour’ to an additional 79 stores, bringing the total number of branches offering the experience to 256. Coles also trained staff to provide shopping support to customers who have autism.


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The Grand Inquisitor
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26 Aug 2019, 4:16 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
Woolworths expands Quiet Hour following successful trial
Quote:
After a successful trial in NSW and the ACT, Woolworths is rolling out low-sensory shopping experience Quiet Hour to more stores across Australia.

Over 260 Woolworths stores will dim their lights, turn down the volume of phones, registers and radio, and turn off oven buzzers for an hour every Tuesday between 10:30am and 11:30am to reduce anxiety and sensory stress for customers.

In addition, roll cages will be removed and there will be no PA announcements in-store unless there’s an emergency.

In March, rival supermarket Coles added ‘Quiet Hour’ to an additional 79 stores, bringing the total number of branches offering the experience to 256. Coles also trained staff to provide shopping support to customers who have autism.

Being Australian, I've heard about this.

I don't experience the hypersensitivity issues that would make going to the supermarket a problem, so I can only wonder how many people this will help. I'm sure there are people who will greatly appreciate this though.



auntblabby
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26 Aug 2019, 4:20 am

i wonder why woolworths went kaput here but survived down under? :scratch:



MrsPeel
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26 Aug 2019, 4:25 am

I think this is primarily a battle between Coles and Woolworths to attract more customers.
Note that they put the quiet hour during the work week when the supermarket is quiet anyway, so no good for those of us in work. Just a ploy to boost customers during their quietest period, and maybe pinch a few from the competition.



plokijuh
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26 Aug 2019, 4:28 am

My big issue in supermarkets is refrigerators and air con. Can they turn those off too :lol:


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The Grand Inquisitor
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26 Aug 2019, 4:31 am

auntblabby wrote:
i wonder why woolworths went kaput here but survived down under? :scratch:

Couldn't tell you. My best guess would be maybe there's more competition in the states and woolworths couldn't compete there. Or it could just be that there's less competition here.

Here, our main two supermarkets are Coles and Woolworths. Then we have supermarkets like Aldi, IGA and FoodWorks. I rarely see any others around but I think there are some. Most people shop at Coles or Woolworths though.



auntblabby
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26 Aug 2019, 5:04 am

^^^of those, the only one stateside is IGA. they are far and few between though, i think wallyworld encroached a lot into what useta be their territory.