Are supermarket staff given special training to deal with their more elderly customers ?
Are our supermarkets Elderly friendly ?
One of my ladies is in her mid 80’s and does one large supermarket shop once a month when she is able to get a lift. During her last visit she realised that whils trying to pack her shopping collect her bank card and put it away safely she had forgotten to collect her £50 cash back.
She said “People know what is like to be a child, but can’t know what it is like to be elderly. I can’t concentrate on several things at once now, my brain gets ‘fuddled'”
It was also an inconvenience for her to return to the supermarket to collect the £50 she is reliant on a lift from neighbours or the bus.
She felt the staff should be more aware of the cognitive slowing in the elderly (even those without dementia) and give them more time to organise themselves and to prompt them to take their cash back.
I decided to research whether supermarkets do provide additional training for staff dealing with elderly customers and learnt that one supermarket is going even further and developing specially designed shops. To find out who this is and what they are doing please click this link.
I also asked in our local store today whether cashiers were given special training to help them understand the needs of their elderly customers and was told no they were not.
I was in my local co-operative store last year when I realised that my memory problems were particularly bad. I spoke to an assistant and explained the situation. She couldn’t have been more helpful and understanding. I was able to stop panicking and continued shopping with her help. So, there are some helpful shop assistants out there.