Polish supermarkets introduce 'hours of silence'

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euronews

I bet some NTs would also prefer these hours.
In Poland, supermarkets need to compete with small shops that are more expensive but naturally more autistic-friendly.

All we need are stores that only allow people over 10 or 11 years of age. Then no matter how crowded it is, I'll still be more relaxed when I do my groceries.

There is or was a restaurant in downtown San Francisco. Unlike the others, it only offered one kind of food, but it was very good, and very cheap. It sold only lunch. They didn't even have a cashier, just a deposit box. It allowed neither shoes nor conversation. When the line-up to get in got too long, the two owner-workers would take a vacation. I don't know if it would still work, with so many 'phone addicts now, but it was a wonderful oasis.

What bothers me in a food store is the sight of animal parts. All domestic animals make fine pets if you have the room, and give them your attention. I won't go in if I smell them being cooked, so I now shop locally only at opening time.

That's cool. I'm surprised. I generally have low expectations of how much strangers care about sensory differences

I don't like dim lighting. It gives me a headache, ironically. I prefer bright light.

It seems to be small kids that cause me the most anxiety in stores.

I get social anxiety from crowds in stores, but also social anxiety going to a store at night too, because there are usually youngsters in there buying drinks and stuff, and I always feel intimidated by them.
Going to the store before 9.30am is the best time for me, because there are a few people there but they seem to be polite and calm and there's more of a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

I have never been bothered by kids in stores. I seldom see any. However, I remember being "that kid" one day, when I fell in with a bad boy and imitated him, racing around with shopping carts, aka trolleys while his parents shopped.

^
Well, in most of the supermarkets I've been in there's been at least one very young kid who squeals and cries piercingly, and another common experience is slightly older kids who run about and make sudden movements - they don't seem aware that there are other people around. A common thing they do is to swing their arms around like windmill sails. They set my nerves on edge. Even the older ones who have grown out of it can still be pretty loud and insensitive. I just go out of my way to avoid them, but that's harder to do when I'm shopping with other people. So an adults-only time slot would be helpful.

It just so happened that my flatmate and I were shopping at Coles (Australian supermarket) and they turned the lights down and stopped the music. We could hear each other better. We didn't know it was going to happen so it was a fluke that we got to experience it. It wasn't the Coles that we normally shop in.

As my eleventh-grade math teacher used to say, "Go Polish people!"