An Open Letter To Marks & Spencers…
1
Dear Marks & Spencer.
With 852 stores, you are one of the biggest retailers in the UK, you have a store in most of our towns high streets. Most people in the UK have shopped in Marks and Spencer’s at some point in their life and most people I know visit at least once a month.
We all love Marks and Spencer’s for its great quality clothes, gorgeous underwear, comfy shoes. We love to treat ourselves to your food on payday and spend time with friends and family in your cafes.
We love how you change to meet the latest trends and have even
SelfishMother.com
2
recently added adapted clothing to your children’s ranges for those with special or medical needs.
It’s all those things that make you the UK’s favourite retailer.
So let me ask you this…
Why is it perfectly acceptable to you that your loyal customers have to lay their disabled loved ones on your toilet floors to meet their continence needs?
Why do some of your customers have to cut their visits to your shops short because they can’t use the toilets you provide?
Why aren’t you making your stores inclusive for EVERYONE?
We’ve
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been asking you for years to make changes to allow your disabled customers to be able to use ALL of your facilities but you’ve still not changed a thing.
A shocking 75% of disabled people have left a shop or business because of poor disability awareness or facilities, including toilet facilities. That’s 3/4 of your customers!!
We’ve been fobbed off with excuses and false promises for long enough now. It’s time for change.
Marks and Spencer’s do you realise that the UK has :
– 1.5 million wheelchair users
– One in 10
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people who have either bladder or bowel incontinence (around 1.2 million people aged 65+affected by faecal incontinence)
-1.5million people with a learning disability
– 1.2million people living with stroke
– 62,000 amputees
– 30,000 people with cerebral palsy
– 13,000 people with acquired brain injuries
– 8,500 people with multiple sclerosis
– 500 people with motor neurone disease
– 8,000 people with spina bifida
All of these people are potential M&S customers. And ALL would benefit from a Changing Places or Space To
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Change toilet facility in your store.
The UK’s 11.9 million disabled people are said to have disposable income collectively worth £80bn!
By not providing these facilities what you’re really saying is that you don’t want us to shop with you. That our money isn’t good enough for you and that you will only provide facilities for those that it’s easy to cater for.
Times are changing, it’s 2016 and it’s time you changed too, you’ve already shown you can by adding adapted clothing to your range so let’s take it a step further.
In an ideal
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world, we would always prefer to have a Changing Places facility and we believe
there is no excuse not to install one in your bigger stores and in all your newly built stores, but at 12m sq not all your existing stores have enough space to accommodate one and we accept that.
At 7mt sq, Space To Change offers a great alternative to those stores with space constraints, in fact some of your current disabled toilets could easily be changed to a Space To Change facility simply by adding some equipment…no building work necessary.
By providing this
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you will be making your stores far more appealing to thousands of customers who like your products, enjoy your food and want to spend time with their loved ones in your cafes.
Your ‘SOMETHING GOOD IS HERE’ campaign states “We believe in doing the right thing, not just saying it.” So please don’t make excuses anymore. The time for change is now, its time to do something good!
What do you say Marks & Spencer’s? Are you in? Do you want to be the UK’s first and only fully accessible and disabled friendly retailer?
Because that’s
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what we want from you!
#M&SForAll #ChangingPlaces #SpaceToChange
SelfishMother.com
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Mum On A Mission - 14 Mar 16
Dear Marks & Spencer.
With 852 stores, you are one of the biggest retailers in the UK, you have a store in most of our towns high streets. Most people in the UK have shopped in Marks and Spencer’s at some point in their life and most people I know visit at least once a month.
We all love Marks and Spencer’s for its great quality clothes, gorgeous underwear, comfy shoes. We love to treat ourselves to your food on payday and spend time with friends and family in your cafes.
We love how you change to meet the latest trends and have even recently added adapted clothing to your children’s ranges for those with special or medical needs.
It’s all those things that make you the UK’s favourite retailer.
So let me ask you this…
Why is it perfectly acceptable to you that your loyal customers have to lay their disabled loved ones on your toilet floors to meet their continence needs?
Why do some of your customers have to cut their visits to your shops short because they can’t use the toilets you provide?
Why aren’t you making your stores inclusive for EVERYONE?
We’ve been asking you for years to make changes to allow your disabled customers to be able to use ALL of your facilities but you’ve still not changed a thing.
A shocking 75% of disabled people have left a shop or business because of poor disability awareness or facilities, including toilet facilities. That’s 3/4 of your customers!!
We’ve been fobbed off with excuses and false promises for long enough now. It’s time for change.
Marks and Spencer’s do you realise that the UK has :
– 1.5 million wheelchair users
– One in 10 people who have either bladder or bowel incontinence (around 1.2 million people aged 65+affected by faecal incontinence)
-1.5million people with a learning disability
– 1.2million people living with stroke
– 62,000 amputees
– 30,000 people with cerebral palsy
– 13,000 people with acquired brain injuries
– 8,500 people with multiple sclerosis
– 500 people with motor neurone disease
– 8,000 people with spina bifida
All of these people are potential M&S customers. And ALL would benefit from a Changing Places or Space To Change toilet facility in your store.
The UK’s 11.9 million disabled people are said to have disposable income collectively worth £80bn!
By not providing these facilities what you’re really saying is that you don’t want us to shop with you. That our money isn’t good enough for you and that you will only provide facilities for those that it’s easy to cater for.
Times are changing, it’s 2016 and it’s time you changed too, you’ve already shown you can by adding adapted clothing to your range so let’s take it a step further.
In an idea
l world, we would always prefer to have a Changing Places facility and we believe
there is no excuse not to install one in your bigger stores and in all your newly built stores, but at 12m sq not all your existing stores have enough space to accommodate one and we accept that.
At 7mt sq, Space To Change offers a great alternative to those stores with space constraints, in fact some of your current disabled toilets could easily be changed to a Space To Change facility simply by adding some equipment…no building work necessary.
By providing this you will be making your stores far more appealing to thousands of customers who like your products, enjoy your food and want to spend time with their loved ones in your cafes.
Your ‘SOMETHING GOOD IS HERE’ campaign states “We believe in doing the right thing, not just saying it.” So please don’t make excuses anymore. The time for change is now, its time to do something good!
What do you say Marks & Spencer’s? Are you in? Do you want to be the UK’s first and only fully accessible and disabled friendly retailer?
Because that’s what we want from you!
#M&SForAll #ChangingPlaces #SpaceToChange
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Laura is Mum to William, the happiest boy you'll ever meet. William has quadraplegic cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Laura writes about life with a disabled child & the issues they face on her blog Mum on a mission www.mumoam.co.uk
She is passionate about making a difference and is dedicated to campaigning for better accessibility for disabled people in the UK.
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