Kmart Caters to Disabled
By George Anderson
A Kmart located in Southwest Florida in Lee County opened early for business yesterday for a select group of customers who find it especially difficult to shop during the holiday
season when parking spaces are hard to find and stores are packed with people.
A report by NBC affiliate WBBH-TV found a happy bunch of shoppers with disabilities soaking up the holiday spirit and spending their money in the store. Many said, that if it
weren’t for this disabled-only event they would need others to do their holiday shopping for them.
One of the shoppers, 23-year old Scott McQueen, got everything on his gift list in less than two hours. "It felt great to shop in a store at Christmas,” he said.
According to the WBBH report, there are three and a quarter million people with disabilities living in Florida.
Moderator’s Comment: What are your thoughts on this story? Are there any lessons to be learned?
No bah humbug here.
If you’re looking for an example on how to build customer-loyalty, here’s a great example.
We don’t know how many customers with disabilities shopped in the store and how much was spent by those that did. It really doesn’t matter, however,
because the act alone establishes this Kmart as being friendly to those with disabilities. That will attract others suffering with disabilities and it makes for good image building
with everybody else.
Looking to the future, it’s important to remember more people will become classified as disabled as the nation ages. [George
Anderson – Moderator]