By Jessica Micallef
Woolworths Sunbury has gone quiet.
The supermarket giant is offering a low-sensory shopping experience at its Sunbury store, known as quiet hour, in a bid to assist customers who find it difficult to shop in a loud and busy environment.
The store will lower its lights, turn down the music and radio and turn off buzzers for an hour every Tuesday between 10.30-11.30am. Volumes on store phones and registers will be lowered, roll cages will be removed from the shop floor and no PA announcements will be made, excluding emergencies.
The store will join more than 260 stores across Australia taking part in quiet hour.
Woolworths operations manager Nanette Rose said she was delighted quiet hour had expanded to Sunbury.
“We’ve heard from our customers there is need in the community for a low sensory shopping experience in the area,” she said.
“Our team takes great pride in ensuring the store is quieter and less stressful for customers who want to shop during quiet hour and we look forward to welcoming them in store.”
Disability service provider Life Without Barriers chief executive Claire Robbs welcomed the initiative for the Sunbury store.
“Quiet hour is a fantastic accessibility initiative by Woolworths that recognises that people have different accessibility needs,” she said. “It gives people a way to do their shopping and increase their independence in an environment that is not stressful and overwhelming to them.”
