Posts Tagged ‘shops’

Going shopping or going mad

Going shopping or going mad

I used to enjoy visiting our local shopping mall with my family because we knew we could stroll around eating an ice cream while looking in the windows until one of us saw something that grabbed our fancy. We would then venture into the shop in search of the desired item. Once inside it would be a case of walking sideways in order to negotiate the narrow aisles between all the clothing, shoes and other displayed goods. It wasn’t a problem then but it sure is now.

I have been in a wheelchair for a few years now and what used to be an enjoyable visit has now become a nightmare. The aisles in most stores can be negotiated with care and precision but to actually get between the racks to select a specific item is next to impossible. I have had my wheels get caught in amongst items of clothing, ridden over shoes left on the floor and driven into other browsing customers with embarrassing regulatory. Needless to say that any visit to the change room is completely out of the question. Few if any shops will allow me to take items home on approval, so the items must be paid for and then returned for swapping or credit if they don’t fit or are not required for what ever reason.

To venture into a store that sells crockery, art, glassware or appliances is fraught with danger. The aisles are packed to well past capacity and the danger of knocking something over with the added risk of creating my own domino effect on the fragile goods being displayed or run the risk of undermining the base of a displayed stack of toasters, steam irons etc and being crowned by a flying appliance is very real. Read more…