‘Appalling’ Asda staff belittled blind mystery shopper in Newton Abbot store

 A registered blind shopper, who was taking part in a Grocer 33 mystery shop for blind or partially sighted (BPS) shoppers, has branded Asda staff at its Newton Abbot store “appalling”, after being fobbed off by customer service, ignored by shop floor staff and assigned to a car parking attendant with “no knowledge of the store at all”.

Mystery shopper Shakti was forced to abandon her shop after 60 minutes and with still only half the 33 items in her trolley, to avoid “being totally overwhelmed with anxiety”, after struggling to keep up with the car parking attendant “as he whizzed round the store”.

”He was really polite and as helpful as he could be but he had no knowledge of the store at all. He did a great job trying, but he was confused about what he was supposed to do. He was thrown in at the deep end. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know the shop, he was out of his depth and not able to find things.

“What was amazing is that no one found it odd that a car park worker was leading a visually impaired shopper round the store,” she added. “The supervisor admitted she saw us. It must have been obvious it wasn’t working. Why did no one intervene? Or why let him do it in the first place?”

Shakti said she was aware of at least six other staff members on the shop floor during her visit – “four stocking shelves, one wandering around, and one chatting to the shelf stackers”.

“Staff had observed him helping me and saw he was struggling, yet no one offered to help. There were very few customers in store – about 10 – but staff were prioritising shelf stacking over customer service.”

’You’ve been relegated to this lady’

However, Shakti reserved her biggest criticism for the “appalling” help desk. She had tried to book assistance for her shop in advance and was told “to turn up to the help desk and ask for assistance”. When Shakti arrived she was told “everyone was too busy” to help. And when she insisted that she would be unable to shop without assistance, the customer service desk informed a car parking attendant he had summoned: “I’m sorry, but you’ve been relegated to help this lady. Do you mind?”

Unsure what to do the bemused car park attendant walked away. And when the customer behind intervened they were told: “She’s been dealt with.”

Read more:

• How supermarkets are failing blind and visually impaired shoppers

• Tesco scores highest in our visual impairment mystery shop

• There are clear lessons to be learned from our visually impaired mystery shop 

Eventually a second car park attendant was summoned and Shakti was able to start her shop. “We shopped for an hour but he was understandably nervous and my own level of anxiety was high. I was trying not to show it as I didn’t want to make him feel worse. Because he wasn’t used to dealing with products he was asking me whether the item he was picking was the right one, but I needed his help!”

The checkout experience was no better. The parking attendant “stayed with me and unpacked my bags and waited, but as soon as the till lady said hello she started a conversation with him and I felt totally uninvolved in the experience. It was like he was the customer! It was a bad experience: I packed my own bags and the till lady didn’t tell me how much my bill was or show me where the payment machine was and it was very dark and in small print so I didn’t know what it said.”

After leaving the store Shakti was so incensed that she returned to the help desk to complain and asked to speak to the manager. A supervisor told her that “the manager was in meetings all day and she would pass my feedback on. The staff, their attitude and conduct, especially at the helpdesk, were appalling.”

Seema Flower, the founder and managing director of disability training consultancy Blind Ambition, which advised The Grocer on this mystery shopper special, said Asda had a history of failing the blind and partially sighted community.

“Of all the major supermarkets I’ve been to, Asda has always been the least helpful when it comes to providing reasonable adjustments in the form of a shopping assistant. So this comes as no surprise,” she said. “Their staff aren’t adequately trained in my experience.”

The supermarket was quick to respond when it was made aware of Shakti’s experiences.

Liz Evans, Asda’s chief commercial officer non-food & retail, said: “Shakti’s experience in store was totally unacceptable and far below our usual standards. We’re grateful she has spoken with us to allow us to apologise and agreed to meet next week so we can further understand how we can learn from this and put things right. We’re also working with Blind Ambition – the disability inclusion consultancy – who will deliver training in store next week, with plans to roll this out more widely across our business.”