Brandon senior upset after mall nixes scooter service
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2017 (3363 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Commending Safeway and lambasting Shoppers Mall, local senior Sharon Brooks said that she wants to see Brandon’s business community become more accessible to those with mobility issues.
In mid-September, Shoppers Mall discontinued its scooter program, under which two electronic scooters had been available free of charge to those who needed them.
The discontinuation came in part due to recent renovations to the guest service area, Shoppers Mall marketing director Candace McKenzie explained, noting that they weren’t left with enough space to store and charge the scooters.
There were also liability concerns, McKenzie added, with Shoppers Mall the final location under Morguard Management, which oversees the mall, to still carry the service.
While they’ve received a number of complaints from “a core group of individuals who used them,” McKenzie pointed to walkers and wheelchairs that they now have available at guest services.
Disappointed by this shift away from accessibility, Brooks said that she would like to see Shoppers Mall reconsider its decision and for other shopping centres to become more accessible.
Safeway, she said, is “fantastic.”
At Safeway, they don’t only supply scooters, but staff members retrieve them for you, she shared, noting that once she gets to the checkout, staff always offer to walk groceries out to her vehicle.
Where Brooks said she’s unlikely to return to Shoppers Mall unless a friend can help her out, Safeway remains fair game.
Brooks, 77, has neuropathy and chronic diabetic foot ulcers and is unable to walk long distances. On doctor’s orders, she restricts her movement within her apartment and between her vehicle and scooters.
She has been dealing with chronic foot ulcers for the past 10 years and was informed last summer by her doctors that it’s “scooter time.”
It has been a difficult transition for the independent senior, who explained: “I have the attitude that I can do all this until I do it and it doesn’t work.”
She has tried using the wheelchairs available at Shoppers Mall, but getting from her vehicle to guest services was too long a walk for her damaged feet, and once she got there the wheelchairs proved both too exhausting for her to operate and ill-sized, hurting her legs.
Loading her personal scooter into her vehicle is too difficult a task for the senior, leaving her without access to Shoppers Mall, where she used to enjoy shopping.
Recognizing that there are more people in Brandon than her with mobility issues, Brooks said that she’d like to see more businesses follow Safeway’s example than that of Shoppers Mall.
» tclarke@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB