UK Supermarket Autism-Friendly Quiet Hours Reviewed

3 min readJan 15, 2023

Written by Nate Ellaby, aged 10.

I went to my local Stores including Lidl, Tesco, and Morrisons to see what autism hour is like. Morrisons do Autism Hour on a Saturday and a Sunday. (Saturday: 9–10, Sunday: First Trading Hour) Tesco`s is on a Wednesday and a Saturday at 9 am.

Tesco:

Tesco is known for doing Autism Hour during National Autism Month Only, but that changed in 2021 when Tesco announced that Autism Hour is a permanent fixture. (Picture Below)

On Saturday 14th January, I went to my local Tesco Extra (Large Tesco) at about 8:50 with a plush Octopus named Declan. When Autism Hour started an announcement came on the speakers announcing that it is starting.

Tesco then stopped the music but didn't dim the lights even though it was a Tesco Extra. I could tell the staff were very friendly which was something I was looking for. Once I finished the shopping I went to the manual tills (Just to see what it was like) and I was more than impressed about the manual tills because I went to one that had just opened.

The checkout was run by Sonja. (Huge shoutout) She was nice to me and Declan and at the time of writing this, I said this in a feedback form.

Rating: 8/10 (Did not dim Lights)

Tesco also has branded Sunflower Lanyards (Which I have one of) More Info Below

Tesco has made 2 Autism Friendly Helpers to print to help around the store. (First Link in a Hyperlink Second one: here)

Lidl:

Lidl was on this list but when I went nothing happened. I wrote to them and asked why but they haven’t replied.

Rating: 0/10 (Nothing Happened)

Morrisons:

The next day, Sunday 15th January I went to my (kind of) local Morrisons.

That Morrisons opened at 11am so `Quieter Hour` was 11–12.

When I arrived at about 11:54am the lights were dimmer than normal but some lights were broken so it was hard to notice. There was Quieter till beeps. Morrisons say they do the following: Dim the lights, Turn music and radio off, No Tannoy announcements, Turn Electric Noises down.

Morrisons did do the following: Dim the lights, Turn music and radio off, No Advertisements,turn checkout beeps down

The only thing they didn't do was turn down electrical noises because there was very loud sounds in the store. I also noticed that there was a sign saying “Quiet Hour: Saturday from 9am-10am” (Picture Below)