Sainsbury’s is transforming its major Bath branch into a ‘signing store’ for four days, to make shopping easier for customers who are hard of hearing.
Under the temporary name of Signsbury’s, the Bath superstore will be home to a range of activities promoting sign language this week.
Staff at the branch will sign common words and phrases when interacting with customers, and screens will demonstrate how to sign different words and phrases, including ‘milk’, ‘trolley’ and ‘bananas’.
Children will also receive free fruit for learning signs during the event from 18 to 21 July, which will be attended by charities including Action on Hearing Loss.
The initiative began with more than 100 staff members taking part in British Sign Language lessons, delivered by a local signing school and supported by Oscar-winning screenwriter Rachel Shenton.
The efforts form part of Sainsbury’s 150th birthday celebrations, which encourage staff to volunteer for a cause of their choice.
Bath superstore manager Paul Robertson said he was keen to support the 11 million people in the UK who live with hearing loss.
“I thought it was the perfect time to use the opportunity to explore new ways to make our store more deaf-friendly,” he said. “We have many hard of hearing customers in Bath and always want to make their experience as brilliant as possible, and we hope Signsbury’s will help better their time in store even more.”
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