To be upset when a clean wheelchair trolley is not available when I visit Waitrose with DS?

[Livingtothefull]

At my local Waitrose there is just one wheelchair trolley which I always hope is available when I visit with my DS - sometimes it isn't as another disabled customer may be using it; I have complained already as I think there should be more. It is stored away from the 'regular' trolleys, in an alcove next to the toilets (would you mind your trolleys - used to hold your shopping - being stored there? That is a genuine question).

Yesterday I went to pick up the trolley and found it had rubbish in it. It is by no means the first time this has happened, I regularly find discarded food wrappers, used hankies etc., many people seem to find it appropriate to use the wheelchair trolley as a rubbish bin.

I complained at Customer Services desk but felt fobbed off so complained again to the manager on the shop floor. She apologised and said that she would tell the staff to keep an eye on this. Based on past experience of complaining though, nothing much will change.

AIBU to think that this demonstrates the really rotten attitude that many people have towards the disabled?

AIBU to think that Waitrose service provision for their disabled customers is just not good enough?

I would just like our shopping experience to be much like everyone else's; you come to the supermarket and collect a nice clean trolley (preferably one from a gleaming row of trolleys).

i am really quite shocked about how many people on here think that having ONE trolley clean and ready to use is acceptable.

I imagine it's hard enough for the op to find the darn thing which sounds hardly accessible, yet then has to fish out rubbish left in it by able people too bone idle to take it to the nearest rubbish bin.

i am suprised to find out this store is waitrose too. i would be complaining from the highest rooftops about this. it's unacceptable.

Has anyone thought about just how difficult it can be for a person using a wheelchair to clean out the trolley before use?

YANBU Living

Spork said it very well

"Discrimination is not just one big event but dozens upon dozens of small events, day in and day out, that so many others unaffected tell us to ignore or that they are not a big deal. It is very wearing and tiring when really all it requires is people have put a bit more thought and care into it."

In order to draw anyone's attention to things like this, you first have to explain how your life and tasks differ from everyone else's, then explain in detail how your life is effected by the current issue and how changes could be implemented that really don't put anyone out very much.

It's fucking exhausting. Someone's it would be lovely to say 'AIBU to x' and have people just get it.

Instead the OP has been threatened, rubbished and called pathetic.

She carries on complaining, I suspect in part because it's on behalf of her son, rather than just for herself.

I no longer can go shopping, go to cafes or restaurants, go down the street. I am locked away and given up trying to do things that have been made impossible by other people. It's easier and less upsetting to let myself be excluded from society. So one more disabled person off the streets and behind closed doors, not able to stand up and be counted, and making it easier for the same to happen to the next person who's disabled.

Well done OP, for daring to expect anything other than distain and 'not my problem go away' ism.

Hi Miscellaneous, thank you so much for your post. I am sorry that you are faced with a situation whereby you find yourself excluded from the community. May I ask why, & about the issues you have faced? Please feel free to pm me any time or if you would just like to chat. I hate that anyone is in a situation where they can't participate in everyday activities….I feel strongly that disabled people deserve to be part of the wider community even though many others would rather they weren't. The hostility against the disabled has to be experienced to be believed.

Yes discrimination against the disabled is made up of small episodes like this one which seem trivial in themselves but add up to a situation in which it is made very difficult for the disabled to participate in society.

When I complain I try not to accuse people or assume that they have negative motives; whenever I have inadvertently done this I have apologised. I do put a lot of thought into my communications on this subject and yes I try to use 'I' messages and focus on the specifics of what DS condition entails and the support I need from them to meet his needs.

It is disheartening when in return I am either ignored or my complaints are disregarded/ridiculed/mocked as happens frequently including this thread.
I have to say that I consider the comments of some of those who have posted here as off the scale unreasonable. For the time being I feel able to keep plugging away in the hope that ultimately things will improve or enough people will 'get it'.

Thanks to all those who have posted supportive messages here.

Just a thought re your last post OP. Would I be right in thinking that some of the posts that have disagreed with you would come under the 'supportive' banner?

There were some normal comments amongst the awful ones and I am just thinking that those people might take offense at being tarred with the same brush and therefore join the ranks of the actively against disabled people!

Don't need any more of those...

OK I will rephrase that. I would like to make clear that I sincerely appreciate the comments of everyone who has taken the trouble to post here with the intention of being supportive and offering honest feedback, even when that has meant that some of these posters have disagreed with me on some or all of my points. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me.

There have been one or two posters whose comments I have found dismissive, sarcastic and borderline abusive, who have displayed what I consider a problematic attitude, but yes these are very much the minority.