If I lived in Philly, although these are for children, it's an excellent idea.
Paul Kourtis is the store director of the brand new ShopRite on Edgmont Avenue in Brookhaven, which opened less than three weeks ago.
When Kourtis got wind of Jackowski’s petition, he didn’t quite get it at first. “What’s the big deal?” he says he wondered. After all, if you’re not the parent of an autistic child, you might not comprehend just how difficult the checkout lanes of a store can be, especially with all of the waiting and the candy and other junk in easy reach.
“People think I’m talking about a temper tantrum,” says Jackowski, whose daughter NavyAnna is on the autism spectrum. “What I’m talking about is much worse than that.” Other parents of autistic children confirmed for us the frustrations of store checkouts.
Kourtis investigated and quickly learned that one of the most helpful things he could do would be to replace the candy in the checkout with “sensory friendly” items like Play-Doh, rattles, and small puzzles, one of the key changes requested in the petition. And while Target told Philly Mag that a change like that would require lots of planning and design work, Kourtis was able to do it in a matter of days, debuting an aisle at the store on Wednesday morning. Rest of the article here:
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/09/07/autism-friendly-checkout-lanes-petition-shoprite/
Paul Kourtis is the store director of the brand new ShopRite on Edgmont Avenue in Brookhaven, which opened less than three weeks ago.
When Kourtis got wind of Jackowski’s petition, he didn’t quite get it at first. “What’s the big deal?” he says he wondered. After all, if you’re not the parent of an autistic child, you might not comprehend just how difficult the checkout lanes of a store can be, especially with all of the waiting and the candy and other junk in easy reach.
“People think I’m talking about a temper tantrum,” says Jackowski, whose daughter NavyAnna is on the autism spectrum. “What I’m talking about is much worse than that.” Other parents of autistic children confirmed for us the frustrations of store checkouts.
Kourtis investigated and quickly learned that one of the most helpful things he could do would be to replace the candy in the checkout with “sensory friendly” items like Play-Doh, rattles, and small puzzles, one of the key changes requested in the petition. And while Target told Philly Mag that a change like that would require lots of planning and design work, Kourtis was able to do it in a matter of days, debuting an aisle at the store on Wednesday morning. Rest of the article here:
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/09/07/autism-friendly-checkout-lanes-petition-shoprite/
