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Order by 7pm for next day deliveryThe Entertainer rolls out nationwide Quiet Hour to create a calming shopping experience for autistic children
07/03/2018
Following a successful pilot during February’s half term, The Entertainer, the fastest growing multichannel high street toy retailer in the UK, is introducing a weekly Quiet Hour that will take place every Saturday in all its UK stores to create a more welcoming environment for children with autism.
Shopping trips can be a daunting experience for autistic children who can find busy crowds and loud noises overwhelming which is why, starting Saturday 3rd March, for the first hour of opening The Entertainer will be switching off the music in store.
Gary Grant, Founder and Managing Director of The Entertainer, comments, “It was great to hear the positive feedback from customers who had visited an Entertainer store during the daily Quiet Hour, which was held during half term and as a result we are delighted to announce the introduction of a weekly Quiet Hour, which will take place each Saturday morning. We continually look for ways to improve customer experience as it’s hugely important to us that all children feel comfortable in our stores and are able to explore the toys we have available.”
Daniel Cadey, Autism Access Development Manager for The National Autistic Society, said: “We’re delighted that The Entertainer is taking this positive step to make shopping a better experience for autistic children. Small changes such as removing in-store music can make a huge difference to autistic people, who can struggle to filter out background noise which can cause them enormous distress. We hope to see other stores follow The Entertainer’s lead and make whatever changes they can to support the needs of all their customers.”
The Entertainer’s Quiet Hour is being held every Saturday morning across all 145 stores from Saturday 3rd March. For more information about The Entertainer and for individual store opening hours, please visit www.TheToyShop.com
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For further press information and to book interview time with Gary Grant, please contact the press office on: pr@theentertainer.com
About the Entertainer
The Entertainer was founded in 1981 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire by husband and wife team, Gary and Catherine Grant, who instilled the driving force and mission; to be the best-loved toyshop – one child, one community at a time. Today, it continues to be a privately-owned company and is renowned for being the largest independent toy retailer in the UK with a total of 145 stores. As well as a strong High Street presence, The Entertainer has a successful website platform (TheToyShop.com) which offers a 30-minute click and collect service and has 22 million visits annually and growing. The Entertainer is also recognised for its charitable giving. Each year it tithes 10% of its net annual profit to charity, in addition employees are encouraged to donate directly through Payroll Giving. The Entertainer is also an active member of the Pennies scheme, the digital upgrade of the traditional charity box, which enables customers to donate a few pence to charity at the point of sale when paying by card. On average, this generates £5,000 of customer donations to Children’s hospitals each week. The Entertainer currently employs over 1200 staff across the stores and a further 160 in the Head Office in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.