Rant about disabled ppl and a STORE (long)

blondrebel76

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Does anyone here use a wheelchair that shops at ? The reason i ask is this.... I take my mom shopping on a regular basis at . My mom has been in a wheelchair for quite a while now, and its extreamly hard on her to even go out, but seams to make it a priority to make things harder. Let me highlight our last shopping trip so you can see what i mean. To take mom shopping involves taking her electric chair outside, loading her into the van, taking the electric chair back in the house as it is wayyyyy to heavy to lift. Then you load her regular wheelchair in the back of the van. Ok, now we get to . I stop in front of the store to unload her, NO WHEELCHAIRS AVAILABLE because they only have like 4 per store and only like 3 regular ones. Now if you are lucky enough to have one available you have to unload her into her own chair, while a cart pusher or other store employee yells about you cant be parking there, its a fire lane, then you have to push her inside and move her from her own chair to one of theirs. You are not allowed to take their chair outside to move her directly from the van into it. If one is not available you have to unload her own chair in the parking lot, and push her up that unforgiving hill to the store. Once inside they have no hand carts so you have to push her while pulling a regular buggy behind you. NOT A EASY TASK! My ankles are always blue from hitting them with the backwards cart. The isles are way to close together esp in the clothing so its hard to shop. Plus the stuff way up on the shelf, if i wasnt there she would be stuck, because there are never any employees around to help. Ok, end of shopping trip, push her out to the van, while pulling the other cart, or leave her sitting, go get van, load her and groceries, while still being screamed at by an employee for your choice of parking. Heaven forbid that you actually got to use one of those nasty store wheelchairs because you CAN NOT EVER take them past the doors, (see loading process above only reverse). By this time she is hurting and angry so it hardly makes it possible.

I tell you that to tell you this, btw thank you if you are still with me here. I went to yesterday, as i walk in someone walks out and the alarm goes off, mr greeterman says nothing and makes no motion towards the door. I stop to tie my shoe and towards the door walks two guys and about 8 mentally disabled teenagers, possibly a home outting or something. All 8 had a shopping bag of whatever, The guy in front is pusing a rolly cart with a bookcase on it. ALARM NEVER GOES OFF. Mr. Greeterman yells and runs to the guy and stops him, makes him pull out this receipt which was a mile long and checks every one of the items in all 8 bags plus the bookcase against the reciept. OH HE**! Surely not i think as i watch. After a 15 minute ordeal he lets them leave.(this was done to me and mom one time, so i emptied every bag, about 600 dollars worth of stuff onto the floor in front of the exit door and made the greeterwoman who hassled us check off every item on the list then pick up and rebag every item while I was throwing a huge fit) Everything checked out. Next a young man with a tv on the same type rolly cart walks right past mr greeterman, and he never moves to check it. I WAS FURIOUS! I called for a manager and for 45 minutes i told him exactly what i had witnessed and how angry i was, then i went into the whole wheelchair thing with him, telling him exactly what i told you above. In the end i was so angry i gave him one week, so next thursday. If something is not changed or done about their practices with disabled, i promised i would go to every newspaper and tv station in oklahoma and tell my story. He must have taken me seriously because he took down my number. If i dont get a call by thursday at 6pm I sware i will do it, i will bring in every newspaper and tv station i can get ahold of and let them have the story of how discriminates against disabled people and how they refuse to change their practices.
 

littleraven7726

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That's awful.
Since moving back to this area, I shop at a lot. But I only like one store in particular. The staff is generally polite, and I don't see a lot of problems there.
It's actually a smaller supercenter, but doesn't seem like mass anarchy when I go in there compared to the bigger one in town.
 
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blondrebel76

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Well bet yer booty i's gonna cause a bit of a shakeup at this , if not several. Hasseling those MR children was way out of line. They face enough hardships as it is, they dont need mr greeterman givin em crap!
 

xlaydeextaniax

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i use a wheelchair full time! am restricted to places that are cramped, narrow & have high curbs or steps. i hate it! am only 21. i can remember being on holiday, & we were looking for a pub, every one we went to had steps!


another thing that frustrates me is the disabled parking, there's a reason why the spaces are actually wider, & that's for wheelchair's. the amount of people i see, that have NO walking problems just use them! at our local town centre, there's hardly any disabled spaces, & the one's we do have are full up by old people, & other people just parking, because they think they'll get away with it!

*rant over*
 

littleraven7726

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Originally Posted by blondrebel76

Well bet yer booty i's gonna cause a bit of a shakeup at this , if not several. Hasseling those MR children was way out of line. They face enough hardships as it is, they dont need mr greeterman givin em crap!
That is really horrible. I've definitely not seen anything like that at the store I shop at. I most likely wouldn't shop there at all if I saw that. I agree, those kids don't need any more hardships.
 

kittkatt

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Being a former "associate" (haha) of that place, I am fully aware of how they operate, and how they treat "associates" and customers. You don't even want to get me started on THAT!


I hate to say it, but you're probably wasting your time by filing a complaint, or complaining to management or the corporate office. Because the only thing cares about is M-O-N-E-Y!


I'm sorry you're having bad experiences there. And I'm sorry they're treating your Mom so shabbily.
But it ain't gonna change anytime soon..


~KK~
 
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blondrebel76

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well it may not change things, but i am gonna try. and i will not let up. there is no excuse for this. btw once i get rolling on something like this i can be a real pain in the butt. If nothing else i will give the manager a nervous breakdown, i can call all day everyday until he is sick of hearing my voice!
 

lunasmom

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Ugh! Sounds like a horrible time. I hate shopping at and thankfully the closest one is 30-45 minutes away.

I agree about their aisles and it really annoys me that more and more stores are copying this idea. I was so frustrated one day at a local shop, that I purposely knocked over a display and kept walking. I didn't care.
 

crazyforinfo

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I would take this to the media. I am sure you are not alone and hopefully others would come forward after hearing your story.
 

kittkatt

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Originally Posted by blondrebel76

well it may not change things, but i am gonna try. and i will not let up. there is no excuse for this. btw once i get rolling on something like this i can be a real pain in the butt. If nothing else i will give the manager a nervous breakdown, i can call all day everyday until he is sick of hearing my voice!
You're right - there is no excuse for it.
I agree with you 100%.


I would suggest calling and complaining to corporate headquarters. If you are able to get anywhere with your complaint, that's the only way you'll get somewhere. The local management most likely won't do much, b/c all they're concerned with is making "their" store look good. If the local store manager can't handle a situation, it looks "bad" for them....

I hope you succeed - I really do.

~KK~
 

MoochNNoodles

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Ugh! That is one of the worst stories I've heard about . Our store is set up pretty good for moving around (clothing section is still hard) and they aren't so tough on their wheelchair use policy. But I've seen and heard enough at our store to know they discriminate against the disabled. Especially employees. I had a student at my last job who worked there and she won a settlement with them I believe. Also the manager once chewed out an employee in the back office without realizing he'd hit the intercom switch...so it was broadcast through the whole store for several minutes! Of course he didn't loose his job over that!
 
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