We avoid the shops like the plague as Henry (autistic) normally is overwhelmed within minutes of arriving. To be honest sometimes even before we’ve made it through the car park to get to the shop.

This happened a few weeks ago when we had to leave mid shopping experience, I thought we would be ok but it was a disaster. There were boxes everywhere, the store was loud as the music was playing through the loudspeaker and Henry had had enough before we even managed to get half way through our list. We left. Again.

I don’t know how many times we have had to abandon cart mid shop, mid car park or just plain avoid shopping altogether. When people say “I’ll just pop into the shop on the way home” because it’s just something they can do. I think to myself I can’t imagine that ease as that is not anything like our life.

We notified them via the Cérge app an hour before arriving with our must haves - low noise and light levels if possible and plenty of space for Henry to walk, hold (swing around ) a basket and for the pram if required.

Henry is autistic and has a walk which requires more space and I have a pram for him as he can tire easily. We entered the store and within minutes had a lovely woman come up to us and explain that they had received the Cérge notification and could see the must haves and if there’s anything further she could do for us to let her know. I was impressed immediately.

The music was off and it was quiet with the staff members moving anything out of the way as we approached and giving us a smile, making sure we could find everything and not showing any bother about it. Do you know how good it felt to not feel judged or like we were annoying people!

They also did not stare at his AFOs and spoke to him rather than ignoring him like we experience in other places. This was such an incredible and beautiful extra. Instead of “just avoid, don’t look” which I think sometimes is because people don’t know what to do and I get that. But gee it was nice to feel like a part of the community having chats whilst shopping and Henry happy.

My anxiety was the lowest it’s ever been whilst shopping! Henry was getting a little overwhelmed by the end of our shop and Jodi (Manager) opened up another register for us so that we could move through faster, including the kids in the process and again asking if there was anything else we needed help finding.

So good! This kind of inclusive and also intuitive experience was so amazing! It was a wonderful experience and definitely a place we will shop again! I didn’t feel the usual stress I do when Henry started showing signs of being overwhelmed (which was right at the end this time, not the start!) as I knew we had the support of the staff members and this was such an incredible feeling of comfort.

Henry has already asked when we are going again!!

Wow!!

Wow!!

Wow!!