Penneys has introduced an autism-friendly shopping experience including sensory friendly shopping hours, to its Athlone store at Golden Island Shopping Centre.
The initiative, developed in partnership with AsIAm, Ireland’s national autism charity, will create an inclusive shopping experience for autistic people and their friends and families.
Each Sunday autistic people and those close to them can visit Penneys stores during the ‘Sensory Friendly Shopping Hour’, which is the first hour of store opening, secure in the knowledge that several measures are in place to ensure a calmer and more inclusive shopping experience.
These measures include noise reduction across the store such as silencing tills and in-store announcements and turning off in-store music, while also offering additional assistance and support from in-store Champions who have all received specialised training from AsIAm.
As part of the Autism-Friendly Shopping Experience, Penneys has created special digital support materials accessible on the Penneys website to ensure that shopping is more accessible for autistic people outside of the ‘Sensory Friendly Shopping Hour’.
Customers can visit the relevant store page and, through visual and audio aids, prepare themselves for the sights and sounds they may experience while in store that may cause sensory overload. It also includes a store map and visual guide called My Trip to Penneys to prepare for their visit and help identify how they can navigate through the store when they arrive. Customers will also be able to easily access these online supports through QR codes placed in-store.
Commenting on the initiative, Damien O’Neill, Head of Sales at Penneys, noted that there was an essential need to adapt and provide an inclusive shopping experience within all branches nationwide.
“Penneys is for everyone, we want everyone to feel welcome in our stores and we understand that for some customers we need to adapt the way we work to provide a better experience. This is just one of the ways we’re doing that and we’ve learnt a lot through AsIAm about how making some small changes can have a big impact.
“We are really looking forward to continuing our work with AsIAm as we work to raise awareness and understanding of autism among our colleagues and in our stores,” Mr O’Neill asserted.
