Monday, 27 August 2007

Make Way For The Pram!

I realised this past weekend while browsing the new Exclusive Books branch in Sandton City, that those responsible for the layout of stores do not take much cognisance of the need for space to manouver with a pram. My 1 year old was forced to endure bump after bump as I carefully negotiated my way around the store. At places I was forced to double back on myself so as to find the correct path through which I could carefully push the pram. Heaven knows what those in wheelchairs do!

As I went into other stores I noticed a similar trend. Very few shops seem to have given thought to accessibility. It seems to be a case of getting as much stock on the floor as possible so as to bring in greater revenue. What they seem to forget is that a pleasant shopping experience means repeat business!

Come on Exclusive Books! Make some space for those of us (dads and moms!) with our little ones in prams! Consider those who cannot walk into your store and need to use wheelchairs! We are all your customers!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Two thoughts come to mind...
1 - the need to exploit every square inch of retail space overrides the need to allow access to the product being sold - obviously at the detriment to sales... (kind of a chicken and egg scenario...)
and 2...
I am willing to bet that all books relating to parenting and the like were on a shelf, at the back of the store with the SMALLEST space to manoeuvre a pram...