Today, I popped into Marks & Spencer’s for three items – strawberries, fresh cream and a bottle of dry martini. (There are some perks attached to being on a low carb high fat diet). I was wearing my ‘visually impaired’ badge and I know exactly where all three items are kept, so I was quite confident of managing on my own.
Strawberries, no problem.
Fresh cream, no problem.
Dry martini – this is where things began to fall apart a bit. I walked up and down both sides of the aisle containing wines and spirits, etc. but no familiar green bottle.
I approached the only other person in the aisle, a man giving close attention to the spirits, and asked for his help. As always, help was given freely and generously. Together, we patrolled up and down the two sides of aisle, again with no success. I asked him if he would mind helping me further and again, he said, “Of course.”
As there was no martini, I determined on a small bottle of champagne, so my new friend undertook the job of reading the labels to me. It boiled down to a choice of three – champagne, prosecco and something he called cava. I professed my ignorance as to what cava might be and spent a very instructive and entertaining ten minutes as he explained the difference between the three options available to me. I settled on the champagne (of course!) and, after thanking him profusely, I made my way to the self checkout.
Here I encountered another problem. Since my last visit to this particular branch of Marks & Spencer Food Hall, the tills had been changed and I couldn’t decipher the screen. So, I made another new friend of one of the ever-helpful Marks & Spencer employees. She guided me through the locations of the start, scan, finish and contactless icons. So, after a few moments, I had a new skill and will be able to check out on my own.
I left the shop feeling very heartened. I’d encountered obstacles and overcome them with the help of two very kind people and held on to a small measure of my independence.
