Walmart is making noticeable changes in every store for morning shoppers. Here's why

[EX500rider]

Walmart announced Tuesday that it is making changes to create a calmer shopping experience, at least for a few hours every day in all of its US stores.

Set to be implemented on Nov. 10, the changes include setting in-store TV walls to a static image, turning off the radio, and lowering the store lights. Walmart said it learned during a pilot test for the back-to-school shopping period that these efforts are especially beneficial to neurodiverse individuals – both customers and employees – with sensory disabilities.

“Earlier this year, we took a step in making shopping in our stores more inclusive for those with sensory disabilities by taking measures to create a less stimulating environment for a couple hours each Saturday. The feedback of the pilot program was overwhelmingly positive,” the retailer said in a blogpost Tuesday. “These changes may have seemed small to some, but for others they transformed the shopping experience.”

Walmart said the sensory-friendly hours will take place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. (local time) seven days a week in all Walmart US and Puerto Rico stores, and don’t have a planned end date.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/business/walmart-sensory-friendly-hours-every-us-store/index.html

[Chainfire]

1. They were blasting Christmas music last week.

[mahina]

3. I guess after Nov 10th between 8 and 10 we can be spared of that!

[Delphinus]

10. I'll try it in a few weeks

I was in Macy's yesterday and ALREADY holiday music.

[mahina]

2. good for them!

I am not sure if all the noise and bright lights are part of why I find trips there distressing and so avoid, but it's inconvenient for me anyway. This will be better for lots of others.

[rurallib]

4. Will believe it when I see it

[EX500rider]

6. So you think Walmart announced that as some type of April Fools joke?

Set to be implemented on Nov. 10, Walmart said the sensory-friendly hours will take place from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. (local time) seven days a week in all Walmart US and Puerto Rico stores, and don’t have a planned end date.

[rurallib]

9. good grief, did I say that?

I just said that I will believe that is a policy when next I go into a Walmart between 8 and 10 and their in store music isn't blaring. Walmart is not the greatest on policies such as this.

Around here they had mask policies that were never enforced.

[xmas74]

16. My local already cut the music in the morning

Months ago and only had 2 tvs on, both with no volume and on a weather station.
It's much calmer.

[rurallib]

21. Good to hear - I shall look forward to it

Wish I didn't have to shop at Wally World, but they drove out all the local competition except for the very high priced chain.

[xmas74]

38. It's the only thing around

Besides the Dollar General. Target is a 40 minute drive so I'm at Walmart once a month or so.

[HAB911]

5. 4, 3, 2, 1,

WOKE! WOKE!

[dem4decades]

8. Well good luck to the MAGA right avoiding Walmart, they've got nothing else.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. As someone w/ a profound hearing loss, the lack of too much overhead noise is appreciated, makes it

easier for me to hear normal conversations. We'll see how it goes.

[GreenWave]

11. Start playing Thanksgiving Day music...

[Qutzupalotl]

12. "Attention (deficit) Wal-Mart shoppers"

But seriously, this is a good move.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

41. What??

Did you say? I lost my thought..

Story of my life having adhd but I wish the peaceful hours were 24 hours.

And I hate 99% of xmas music,it triggers me and what happened to no xmas shit until after thanksgiving rule?


I am dreading xmas already.

I shop at walmart because I am poor,and can't drive and you have to wait 2 hours for the next bus which shoots my anxiety sky high.

[Marthe48]

13. I'll never know

I haven't been inside a walmart for several years. Very rarely, I drive through their parking lot and that alone reminds me of why I don't shop there. If it transforms the shopping experience, maybe others will enjoy their ordeal a little more or differently.

[usedtobedemgurl]

14. As someone with a traumatic brain injury....

And light sensitivity. this is a great thing.

[EX500rider]

15. Yeah I posted it hoping the info would help some people on here

[usedtobedemgurl]

17. I don't usually shop in Walmart....

I do curbside, but if I have to go in, I know when to do it. Thanks for the information.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. I use cotton in my ears for a nightclub, never tried it at Walmart

Blocking out the shoppers won't be a bad thing.

[Demovictory9]

19. Wow

[Oopsie Daisy]

20. Loud stores bother me. My nearest target has NO background music and NO audio on their TV wall!

I've thanked and praised them for that many times. I want to encourage it. I recently needed to go to the next-closest Target and it was a different story. The music was LOUD and very -- "youthful" let's say. (not my cuppa tea at all!) I had to turn OFF my hearing aids because it was so loud --- isn't that sad?

I really do like being alone-with-my-thoughts while shopping. I like being able to look-up comparative pricing info and check the Target app to see if there are any e-coupons or other bonuses while shopping. Having a quiet and calm store makes it easier, and I spend more time there when I don't feel like "OMG-I've-GOT-to-get-OUT-of-here!!"

[Axelrods_Typewriter]

25. This is why I liike Aldi

Aisles are nice and wide, they don't have a billion choices for every product, and it's nice and quiet inside. And the store is actually store-sized, not airplane hangar-sized.

[Oopsie Daisy]

28. I dislike the haphazard categorization at Aldi --

--- but I do like smaller grocery stores. Like a neighborhood market, just what I need when I need it. The basics, staples, at a decent price. And if I need specialty vegs or cheeses for recipes or occasions, I can search elsewhere. but for daily shopping, we like our little Weis market (and the Sr/Military discounts are nice too.)

[Conjuay]

36. This is no joke:

Our Aldi's has not had mens deodorant in 5 MONTHS.
There still is a sign on the empty shelf, like they expect it to arrive at any minute.

[Conjuay]

37. This is no joke

Our Aldi's has not had mens deodorant in 5 MONTHS.
There still is a sign on the empty shelf, like they expect it to arrive at any minute.

[moniss]

22. I don't know about the experience of others but

I would settle for the Walmart stores around me to just have more of an effort at clean floors, clean entryways, clean parking lots etc. Maybe the ones around me will lower the lights so I don't notice the floors as much.

[niyad]

39. I will say that the Walmart by me is pretty clean, even during the

insanity of the current (and, one hopes, finished) remodel. I wish I could say the same for a Family Dollar by me. ughhhh.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

23. How about walmart paying living wages and stop using SNAP as a corporate subsidy

[ancianita]

24. Meh. Even if they said they'd stop funding Mike Johnson

I’d never step foot in one.

[FailureToCommunicate]

26. Interesting! There seems to be more musak and repetitive announcements EVERYWHERE...

we shop: food stores, clothing stores, home goods stores... even gas station pumps blast out unwelcome blather.

I can't stand the trend. It's a bit like Nineteen Eighty Four in its pervasiveness.

(Edited to add: Get off my lawn!)

[pfitz59]

27. Not my concern

I never use walmart

[NowISeetheLight]

29. Remodel

They're in the middle of remodeling my local Walmart. So far it's actually pretty nice except for the evil human replacing self-check lanes. I usually use the drive up service so I don't have to go inside. PTSD can be a lot like sensory issues in that dealing with crowds is tough. If I do go inside it's always at 7am before its busy.

[niyad]

31. My local is remodeling as well. I will avoid the grand reopening.

Apart from a completely remodeled restroom I had not even known about, the one thing I am noticing is that the shelves go much higher.

[NowISeetheLight]

34. Lost

I find I'm lost in ours. They moved everything around. I went for dog treats last week and they moved the pet stuff from the front corner by the garden center to the back opposite corner by the paper towels. The old pet section was crammed full of Christmas stuff.

I also noticed they didn't have any fall stuff (like orange Thanksgiving stuff). I need to find some and I'm sure as heck not going to Hobby Lobby!

[niyad]

35. I know. Everything is moved around. The pet food is now

clear to the back of the store, but it is almost tripled in size, especially the cat stuff. The arts/crafts and sewing also seriously expanded.

[niyad]

30. Not neurodivergent, but I have hyperacusis and severe

sensitivity to light. My poor overstressed senses could use a break (this includes most stores, mostly so brightly lit that I have to wear my sunglasses. And I wish earpkugs did not give me headaches.)

[Mopar151]

32. Overcaffinated retail is hazardous to the soul! nt

[Hekate]

33. Kudos to Walmart!

[Maru Kitteh]

40. I'm both amazed and encouraged by this?

Hopefully other stores will follow.