Lidl apologises to father over autistic son’s experience

LIDL Ireland has apologised to a Corofin father for any distress caused to his 11-year-old autistic son over its failure to turn down music in its Ennis store.
Adrian Beakey has appealed to all retail outlets to show more understanding concerning the sensory needs of children and teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder following a recent incident in Lidl’s discount supermarket in Gort Road, Ennis.
Mr Beakey recalled his son, Marcus, became distressed while they were shopping because the music in the store was loud particularly at the area near the tills where the speakers were located.
“It was quite busy. I was waiting in a queue. I went up to a cashier and asked if could I speak to a manager. She put her hand up and said I am the manager.
“I said my son is autistic, if you could turn down the music a small bit, I would appreciate it.”
Mr Beakey recalled the manager claimed she didn’t know how to turn down the music and felt her response wasn’t really a genuine answer.
When Mr Beakey asked the manager why she couldn’t turn down the music, he claimed she blanked him and proceeded to check out other customers’ shopping.
Following this interaction, Adrian returned to his trolley and put half of his shopping up on the conveyor belt.
Having considered the matter further, the Corofin man felt this was not the appropriate action and decided he wasn’t going to shop in this supermarket any more.
He approached the manager again to get her name as he explained he wasn’t happy with the response he had received to what he felt was a very reasonable request for his son.
“All she was concerned about what whether I was getting my shopping. I said no, ‘I will not be shopping here ever again’. She left her till, walked past me, and all she was interested in doing was getting my items off the conveyor belt so someone else could put their shopping on it.
“I have made this request in a number of other retail outlets such as Aldi and other shops around the county and it has always been done for me. There is never an issue if you ask in a nice polite way.”
Adrian said Lidl is aware of the triggers affecting people with ASD, with two hours set aside for people with ASD on a Tuesday night.
Acknowledging while this is helpful, Adrian pointed out this set time isn’t always convenient for families who have a child with ASD.
Responding to Clare Champion queries, a spokeswoman for Lidl Ireland stated a member of their store team was approached regarding the volume levels of the in-store sound system, but unfortunately they did not know how to manually reduce the volume and politely explained this to the customer.
“As the first nationwide retailer to implement autism friendly shopping hours and the first to become JAM card friendly, Lidl has demonstrated a clear understanding of the additional needs these customers have.
“Unfortunately on this occasion we did not meet this customer’s needs and we apologise to the customer in question for any distress caused.
“To avoid instances such as this in the future we will be initiating some internal communications to ensure that all members of our store teams can understand how to manually adjust the volume in their store.”

by Dan Danaher