Unfortunately there will be a delay in Sunflower Lanyards scheme coming to all Sainsbury’s stores this August. Please watch this space as we will bring you updated information. We appreciate Sandra, Community Champion from the store at Telford Forge Retail Park for informing us about this great initiative.
So what is this scheme about? It is a scheme to enhance the shopping experience of people with hidden disabilities. The initiative will offer shoppers the option to pick up a lanyard, which has been purposely designed to act as a discreet sign for store colleagues to recognise they may need to provide a customer with additional support when in store.
Staff will be happy to provide extra support such as opening a new checkout lane, assisting with finding shopping items or simply giving them more time at the checkout. Lanyards will be available to collect for free and are for each customer to keep so they can wear it every time they come into store.
Sainsbury’s are the first supermarket to test the initiative, following Gatwick Airport’s successful launch, in which over 10,000 lanyards had been collected up to March 2019. By using the same sunflower lanyards as Gatwick Airport, Sainsbury’s nationally is rolling it out across all their stores this August and hope to encourage other retailers to follow suit, meaning customers have the option to wear their lanyard in shops across the UK, in the knowledge that store colleagues will recognise what it stands for.