Asda is to begin selling disability aid products for the first time this week as it plans to start marketing towards Britain’s senior consumers.
From Saturday, the UK’s second biggest supermarket will stock a new range of goods including a collapsible wheelchair and fold-up walking sticks, as well as bathroom aids such as shower seats, raised lavatory seats, tap turners, urine bottles and bath shelves.
The items will be catered towards older people and younger people with disabilities as well as those with short-term injuries .
Asda said it is breaking into the multi-million pound industry to help “eradicate the stigma” surrounding the sale of mobility products .
Mobilease, a new brand developed by businessman Dermot McLaughlin, has worked in collaboration with Asda to offer the range of 15 products.
Commenting on the move, McLaughlin said: “The mobility and living aids industry has been stuck in the dark ages for decades. The very products that are created to make life easier for people have been cursed by a strange irony – they are unnecessarily difficult to access.”
“They should be easily available to customers, but the existing government system can be slow and restrictive.”
“The most important thing is that having Mobilease available in Asda will gradually change people’s perception of disability and eradicate the unnecessary stigma that has surrounded mobility products,” he added.
Pamela Martin, senior buyer for Asda, said: “Mobilease products are incredibly important for a large number of our customers and we’re delighted to be the exclusive retailer .”
The 15-product range will initially go on sale in 75 Asda stores this weekend and, if successful, will be being rolled out across all 350 supermarkets later this year.
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