(ANSA) - MILAN, MARCH 27 - 'Kind carts' are arriving in supermarkets to help frail elderly people, and in particular people with dementia, do their shopping without stress and respecting their time.
The initiative starts from four Coop Alleanza 3.0 sales outlets in Trieste (Largo Barriera, Largo Roiano, San Giacomo and Poggi Paese) and is part of the larger project of a friend Shop, which started last year with the De Banfield - CasaViola Association.
The CasaViola experts supervised the training of 88 Coop employees in Trieste, who obtained the qualification of "friend of people with dementia" according to the criteria of the Italian Alzheimer Federation, while the sales outlets now have the recognition of "Friend of people with dementia".
From today, the customers of the four Trieste points of sale will have a sign in the trolley collection area with the words "Do your shopping calmly!"
which signals the point where you can pick up a sign to place in your shopping cart that bears the wording: "Please don't rush me. I'll go shopping calmly, I'll take it easy".
"It is a small precaution capable of producing a great result in terms of inclusion and improvement of the lives of people with some frailties by concretely offering a 'softer', slower and gentler time for their daily shopping. The staff of our stores have faced with great seriousness and passion for the training course to become 'dementia friendly'" said Coop Alleanza 3.0 Director Domenico Costa, announcing that "Coop's intention is to extend the project to all shops in Friuli Venezia Giulia by replicating the Trieste model, then to export the experience also in the rest of Italy".
(HANDLE).