A DUMBARTON supermarket is to introduce a quieter hour for customers who would benefit from a calmer shopping trip.

Designed to help customers who currently struggle with music and other noise associated with supermarket shopping, it will take place every Saturday at Morrisons on Glasgow Road between 9am and 10am.

The ‘Quieter Hour’ initiative has been created with the support of the National Autistic Society after the supermarket chain carried out a trial earlier in the year in three of its stores to find out what improvements could be made, and to pinpoint a convenient time each week for the downtime to take place. 

During the ‘Quieter Hour’, Morrisons staff will dim the lights in the company’s stores, turn music and radio off, stop tannoy announcements, reduce trolley and basket movement and halt electrical noise and checkout beeps, while also working to improve awareness amongst colleagues of the issues autistic customers face in store.

Russell McCaw, at Morrisons Dumbarton, said: “Our initial trials showed there is a need for a quieter shopping experience.
“We hope that these changes make a real difference for some of our customers at our store.”