Friday, April 27, 2012

Aldi.Never again.

Those who know me will be familiar with my disabilities suffered from a severe stroke in July 2009.I walk with a noticable limp,have lost the ability to lift the front of my left foot up to facilitate walking and have very limited use of my left arm and hand.The limp is noticable and the keeping of the left hand in the belly pocket of a hoodie whilst walking with  a walking stick would leave only an amadan in doubt that I am either disabled or alternatively a good actor.
I have resat my driving test and passed it and am competent to drive a vehicle with an automatic transmission with a ball on the wheel .I now drive such a car ,an automatic Nicra with a ball on the wheel and it gives me great independence.
Today I drove the car with the missus on board to Aldi in Navan to do the weekly shopping,about £150.. worth.Aldi was partly chosen because of a recent promotion of disability products and I wanted some.
I have good days and bad days health wise and spirit wise.Generally it takes huge effort to walk any distance and I realise if I don't make the effort my ability to walk will be lost and that is one eventuality I want to postpone as long bas possible.Use it or lose it.
Today was a glass half empty day and I parked in one of the three disabled spaces outside Aldi.Herself went in to do the shopping and I rolled down the car window to read the paper.My concentration was brutally broken by the aggressive loud and threatening voice of a male who put his face practically against mine shouting "This space is for disabled drivers ,get out of there".I shock I said I am disabled ,to which he said "You have no sign up "before disappearing.(I admit I never got a sign.).He could see through the open window the ball on the steering wheel and the automatic geaerchangs and if he wanted the walking stick.
Still in a state of shock  and as the individual involved never identified himself  nor wore any identifiable  tag nor uniform as far as I could see,I reasoned that such ignorance could not belong to any person employed by the Store and maybe an aggressive customer was trying to take his frustrations on a helpless victim.To address this I got out of the car and saw the individual in question getting into a white van with lettering a on the side some distance away.I shouted to him to wait and made my way to him.I said that I was disabled as he could see and resented being spoken to like that and asked him his name .He refused to give it,said that he worked for a car park management company ,told me to read the sign which said that a permit must be displayed and threatened to clamp the car if I didn't move it.
I invited him to do so if that was his policy and again asked his name,which he refused to give.He jumped into his van and left the car park.The name of the Car Park management firm is NCPS.                           
.I afterwards checked the other cars in the reserved spaces .Only one of the three had a disabled sticker.
Rarely have I encountered such aggressive hatefulness and never again will we shop at either Aldi nor any shop employing this company.
This will be my protest.

1 comment:

  1. SINCE THEN i HAVE ONLY ONCE ENTERED AN ALDI STORE AND THAT WAS BECAUSE THEY HAD AN ITEM FOR SALE THAT WAS NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE.

    ReplyDelete