The reason we actually need to be quiet during the quiet hour
It was 2:39 on a Tuesday afternoon and "Bounce" by Calvin Harris was blasting from the corner of my local Asda.
"That’s weird," I thought. The quiet hour is supposedly 2pm-3pm Monday to Thursday. I came out of the freezer aisle and discovered that the house music was coming from the bakery section on the other side of the store. Until that point, they were doing so well with no radio or tannoy announcements but the music from the bakery ruined it. Did I ask them to turn it down? Well, no, I didn’t want to embarrass myself. But I probably should’ve said something.
That music in the corner of the supermarket may seem like nothing to some people, but the noise paired with the aroma of the bakery could tip someone over the edge if they are over-responsive to sensory input.
It’s all down to how the brain responds to the surrounding sensory stimuli. Bright lights, loud noise, certain smells and feelings may not be communicated in the same way that a neurotypical’s brain handles it, which can cause overwhelm, distress, and sometimes even physical pain.
Quiet hours have been a thing for a few years now in basically all large stores- the first supermarket to introduce this to all stores nationwide was Morrisons in 2018 with others only offering it to a select few locations at the time- and some shops have only just introduced them.
All that being said, it's a step in the right direction if supermarket staff are being trained to understand the importance of it. Remember how excited the supermarkets and the press were about it starting? It was everywhere in the media. But where is all the enthusiasm now?
To find out if it's any better in other supermarkets, I woke up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning to experience the Morrisons’ "quieter hour". The taxi driver thought I was very brave going out that early in the morning - it was 9am.
I read on Morrisons’ website that they will supposedly dim the lights, turn off the radio, avoid tannoy announcements, reduce the movement of trolleys, and place a poster outside to tell everyone that it was the quieter hour.
I don’t know if this comes as a shock to you but some of those rules were not followed properly on the day I visited. In the 10 minutes I was there, I saw no poster outside, I heard two tannoy announcements and there were trolleys and cages in almost every aisle. I even had to ask a member of staff if it actually was the quiet hour (and it was). To give them the benefit of the doubt there was no music which helps a lot, and the changes they do make are very beneficial. And maybe they did place a poster outside, I just couldn’t find it.
I contacted the Asda press office a few times and tried calling them for a response to my question about staff training on disabilities but I didn’t get any reply. I emailed Morrisons’ press office and they said they cannot reply to all students. I also emailed Tesco but they just directed me to a press release they wrote a few years ago about the introduction to their quiet hour.
As I’m just a student they probably didn’t take me very seriously- or they just don’t want to talk about their disability training. Either way, it’s pretty disappointing to see how little they care about it.
As all the stores refused to reply, the best way to find out whether a service is truly working is to ask the public for their own experiences.
I talked to Nicole English from Grays, Essex, and she told me she uses the quiet hours in different UK supermarkets with her autistic child. She explained that many aspects are helpful but other shoppers still seem to be judgemental of the people benefiting from the hour.
Nicole said: “I think many neurotypical people still use it in the hope of faster service, and they still judge. There could be a little remark around behaviour or noise levels, or they could make a disapproving noise.
“Less music and cages around help us; however not all supermarkets actually adhere to their own policy. Whenever we use the service, there’s always cages around still, music tends to be on and checkouts still beep.
“But staff are more aware of needs and are always helpful, chatty and lovely to us. It helps speed up our shop as we’re dealing with fewer distractions, for example, less things to touch or less sensory input.”
The lack of conversation about sensory issues not only amplifies ignorance and judgement, but it also makes people unaware of the services that are available. No one will make use of them if it isn’t advertised.
Max Little, 21, a placement student in Bournemouth was diagnosed with autism at the age of five and occasionally experiences sensory overloads in crowded places. He explained that he has never noticed any shops that do quiet hours.
“I have never noticed anywhere that does that before, to be honest. When I was living at university I would do my shopping in the evening because it is quieter then.”
You usually have to trawl for information about quiet hours on shop websites, but there’s nowhere else to find this guidance. It’s not often that I see on social media or on physical signs outside the store that quiet hours exist.
What we can learn from this journey is that supermarkets are definitely going in the right direction with being more inclusive, but there is still a lot of work to do to make this service more effective and more well-known.
As much as some of us love listening to dance music as we work, we should just switch off for an hour a day. A more peaceful space can really help someone.
Read more by Charlotte Gager - What it’s like to be an autistic university student?
Purple Lantern Society - is for Portsmouth students who identify as neurodivergent (diagnosed or self-diagnosed/suspecting ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Tourettes, etc) and anyone who wishes to learn more about neurodiversity. It is run by a neurodivergent committee.
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