The Mall celebrates Purple Tuesday with free advice event

Purple Tuesday is an organisation that campaigns to improve the disabled customer experience year round, with the first Tuesday of November serving as an annual day of reflection across the country to shine a light on what organisations can do to make this experience easier.

The event at The Mall offered shoppers the opportunity to speak to local organisations who provide help, advice or information to those in the community with disabilities and/or health conditions, or to anyone who knows of someone affected. The event saw large numbers of shoppers stop by to speak to organisations including:

• Luton Adult Learning
• Keech Hospice Care
• Shopmobility
• Shaw Trust
• Community Volunteering Service Bedfordshire
• Luton Job Centre Plus

The Mall Luton also took to social media to showcase the additional considerations made within the centre year-round. The Mall is proud to host a Quiet Hour at the shopping centre every Tuesday between 9am and 10am for those who prefer a quieter shopping experience, with no music and tannoys. In addition, The Entertainer offers a quiet hour every day in their first hour of opening.

Shopmobility at The Mall provides easier access for shoppers, open Mondays and Wednesdays on Level 3 in Market Car Park from 9:30am – 4pm (with the last scooter issued at 2:30pm). Christmas shoppers can also take advantage of additional opening hours on Fridays 15th, 22nd and 29th December. Further information can be found on The Mall’s website.

To ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the Christmas festivities, The Mall will also be holding quiet sessions at their upcoming Grotto every Sunday (excluding Christmas Eve) from 10am to 11am. Slots are now available to book and more information can be found here.

The centre team use Purple 365, a disability training and development resource providing staff at all levels with access to knowledge understanding and practical approaches to deliver a better every day experience for disabled people as customers and employees. The centre team are also Dementia Friends, having attended dementia awareness sessions.

Lavinia Douglass, Marketing Manager at The Mall Luton, commented “Here at The Mall, we are always looking to make the shopping experience as accessible we can, which is why we were proud to host our Purple Tuesday event on 7th November. We’d like to express our thanks to all of the charities and organisations in attendance, it was lovely to see so many people benefiting from this informative event. We look forward to hosting similar events in the future, as well as ensuring we are accessible to all of our community every day of the year.”

Further information can be found on The Mall’s website.