Asda takes part in Purple Tuesday by having 'inclusive hour' at Kent stores

Several Asda stores in Kent are having a trial ‘quiet hour’ for customers with autism, dementia and other conditions, as part of the Purple Tuesday initiative.

The grocer will be switching off displays, tannoy announcements and escalators from 9-10am every Tuesday in eight of their Kent stores.

Asda hopes to make shopping in their stores less overwhelming for those with hidden disabilities starting on Purple Tuesday, the UK’s accessible shopping day, which takes place on Tuesday 13th November.

The trial comes a couple of months after Sainsbury’s launched a ‘sunflower lanyard’ scheme in certain stores; making staff aware that customers with autism and dementia may need extra support with their weekly shop.

Asda’s Sittingbourne store was recently awarded 'Best Dementia Friendly Company' at the Dementia Friendly Kent awards. Claire Fosbeary is the store’s community champion, and she is also taking part in the Purple Tuesday trial.

She said: "This is something very important to everyone in the store, and I know is extremely relevant to some of the groups I work with in the community too. It's great that Asda are supporting Purple Tuesday – everyone in the store is getting behind it.

"It's a big thing for our store to be involved in. Hopefully it will get bigger year on year as more people become aware of it."

Stores included in the trial are Ashford, Broadstairs, Folkestone, Gravesend, Kingshill, Maidstone Living, Sittingbourne and Tunbridge Wells.

Nearly one in every five people in the UK has a disability or impairment, and over half of households have a connection to someone with a disability.

Their collective spending power, the Purple Pound, is worth £249 billion to the UK economy, according to disability charity Purple.

The organisation is the brains behind the Purple Tuesday initiative which is endorsed by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mike Adams, the CEO of Purple said: “I truly believe we are on the brink of something big which can make a difference to the everyday lives of disabled people as well as the wider business cultural attitudes towards disability.

“We have already had international interest in the day and we can show the world how it’s done, firmly establishing the UK as leaders in this field.”

“So, let’s do this. Let’s make 2018 the year of the first accessible shopping day, and the catalyst for making the UK a more accessible place.”