Today, I have an Accessible Adventures post where I review a venue/place I have visited and let you know about my experience as an ambulatory wheelchair user and a full-time mobility aid user.
The Trafford Centre is a go-to spot for shopping, dining, and some entertainment in Manchester, but how does it fare regarding accessibility? I recently visited to see how easy it is for those of us with different mobility needs to get around.
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| The Trafford Centre ( Image Source - Google) |
If you haven't read my initial post about this series, you can find it HERE, in that post, I explain more about my needs and a bit more about me and this series.
A Little Bit Of Info:
Due to suffering from serious and incurable medical conditions and the side effects of those, I am an ambulatory wheelchair user, which means I can walk but only very short distances. I use a crutch full-time, and as well as carers, I have adaptations and equipment in my home to help me. When I am out and about, my daughter or my partner pushes my wheelchair for me. My wheelchair is the self-propelled type, but unfortunately, I cannot self-propel, when I saw Wheelchair Services regarding which was best, they explained that the self-propelled style of wheelchair is much easier for the person pushing to push.
Despite living in the Manchester area, the Trafford Centre isn't somewhere I have visited too often, but over the last couple of years, I have been a handful of times. When I do visit, it is purely to go to the shops, and if I have something to eat, it will be within one of the shop's cafe areas or maybe a coffee shop, so I cannot comment on the food court or entertainment areas in regards to accessibility I'm afraid.
My Visit:
My daughter Alicia and I were visiting the Trafford Centre on a Sunday, we got there at 11.30am, the Trafford Centre shopping times on Sundays are 12pm - 6.00pm, but you can browse for an hour or so beforehand. I have visited the Trafford Centre before, but this post is based on that visit. We always make a list and plan our visit when we're going out, especially to a shopping centre we've been to, so Alicia can plan a route, as she is pushing my chair.
Parking:
We parked at M&S as we needed to pick some bits up from the food hall there and knew we'd do that last, so it would be the best place to park. Considering the size of the car park in that area, there aren't enough disabled car parking spaces, possibly 12 at most when considering the car park is huge, it really is poor. We couldn't get a disabled parking space and had to park 4 rows back from the disabled spaces which was really inconvenient, luckily the space at the side of us was free so Alicia was able to bring my wheelchair to the door but this would have been impossible, should that space have been taken.
The Shops:
When we go to the Trafford Centre, we have a route planned. We look around the bottom-floor shops first, usually having lunch at John Lewis, and then we go to Primark, which is in another part of the centre. Then, we go to the upstairs shops.
As always, we went to the shops we wanted to go to on the bottom floor. It was very busy as it was a Sunday, and something I have learned since being a wheelchair user is that the general public can be extremely rude with no regard for anyone other than themselves. Alicia and I spend most of our time shouting, "Excuse me".
Most of the shops on the bottom floor are accessible enough for Alicia to push me around without much of an issue. Some are a little snug but still ok, to be honest, the main issue is other people and having no manners.
Fitting Rooms:
On our visit, we used the fitting rooms in 3 shops, Marks and Spencer, River Island and Primark, only Primark had an accessible fitting room free (more on Primark later) in both River Island and M&S, they were taken. We were only waiting for a minute, and then the lady using the fitting room in River Island had finished, so it wasn't too bad however, for a disabled/accessible fitting room, it was on the small side, and Alicia struggled to navigate me getting in and out and whilst inside to allow room for trying on the clothes.
In M&S, the disabled fitting room was taken. There is only one disabled fitting room, but there are a lot of non-disabled ones which are bigger than standard fitting rooms but not huge by any means. I was frustrated as every single time we have needed to use the fitting room in M&S, the disabled one is taken. This time there were 3 ladies, all friends wanting to try on together, the gentleman at the entrance to the fitting room explained that the disabled one was taken and he wasn't able to stop people using it who weren't using a wheelchair. One of the ladies heard and opened the door of the fitting room and said, rather snarkily "Do you want us to step outside for a minute so you can use it"? I wanted to retort with "No thank you, I'd like you to take 3 fitting rooms next to each other and come out and show each other your items" but I didn't, I just said "No thank you"
Why she needed to be snarky, I'll never know, they were the ones using facilities they clearly didn't need. I didn't want them to "step outside for a minute" so we would feel we had to rush, I honestly couldn't understand why they didn't move into 3 separate fitting rooms. We used one of the others, and whilst Alicia did get my chair into the fitting room, it was a struggle, and we were left with very little room, there was no room to turn round, just look in the small side mirror. Luckily, we only had a couple of jackets each, and Alicia had a pair of jeans, so it wasn't too bad, but it would have been so much easier using the disabled fitting room.
Lifts:
There are quite a few shops with lifts and there are also lifts in the Trafford Centre too, so the lift access is quite good and we didn't have any issues.
Dining:
As I said, usually we go to John Lewis for our lunch, the store is quite easy for Alicia to push me around in and they have lift access too and disabled toilets. The cafe is on the upper floor, and the lifts are towards the back of the shop which they often are in shops but it wasn't an issue, we found the lifts and then made our way to the cafe. When we got there, there was a member of staff at the entrance of the cafe and she explained that the cafe was closed due to them having no water.
She said the toilets were available to use, but then told us the nearest toilets were in Starbucks just down the way on the right-hand side of the centre, strange, but never mind. We had a look around the Christmas decorations, well we tried, there wasn't much room at all between the aisles so we couldn't look at 80% of the decorations so we left.
Since we were upstairs now, we decided to stay upstairs and we chose Starbucks to have some lunch.
Starbucks:
Starbucks was extremely busy, at first we thought we wouldn't get a table, but luckily there was a table for 2 available. Starbucks had the tables and chairs quite close together but easy enough for Alicia to wheel me to the table. I waited whilst Alicia went to the counter for our lunch, the queue was huge but it did go down quite quickly and Alicia wasn't too long at all.
We had our drinks and sandwiches and we left, I would go to Starbucks again, we have been in before for a drink a couple of times, it is accessible and there isn't a bad selection to choose from for lunch.
Primark:
Fitting Rooms:
I didn't intend to write about certain shops in particular, but in terms of accessibility, Primark really is the star of the show in this post and in the Trafford Centre. Their large lifts aren't right at the back of the shop, they are big, and there are 2 of them to take you up and down the two floors.
The shop is laid out fairly well, and Alicia could navigate my wheelchair around with ease, when we visited the fitting room, we were surprised to find the disabled fitting rooms are locked, and a member of staff gave us a plastic thing that you get when entering most fitting rooms, and then they told us which room number to go in. The fitting room was bright, the red cord was down and not high up wrapped around anything. There were ample grab rails and a seat, plus a call button. Alicia tried on some jeans, I had nothing to try, but we had plenty of room for Alicia to check the jeans from all angles with plenty of space, unlike the disabled fitting room in River Island.
When we had finished, we gave the assistant back the plastic thing, and we left, then the room was locked again. We thought it was good that not just anybody can use the disabled fitting room, and only those who need it can use it, if you need it and aren't a wheelchair user, you mention it when they hand you the plastic thing, and the staff will unlock them, yes I said them as there is more than one disabled fitting room.
Paying:
Regarding paying in Primark, they have a designated queuing area split into two halves, one on the right and one on the left. Each side has several tills, all numbered, and staff press a button to let you know which till is free. The first till on both sides has a wheelchair symbol above it, this is for disabled customers, to access these, so you do not need to queue.
If you go to the middle of both queues towards the front, a member of staff will ask you to go to the till once it is free, if you use a mobility aid, it is more obvious you need to use this till, but I have researched, and apparently, if you have an invisible illness, you can speak to a member of staff who will serve you.
The desk and card machine are lower at the till, making it easier to pay if you are a wheelchair user. I think with the disabled fitting rooms and the fact you don't need to queue to pay, cause let's face it, Primark queues can be extremely long, it is brilliant and can make such a difference to someone's shopping experience. We were really impressed with both of these features and the size of the lifts.
Overall Thoughts & Star Rating:
Shops:
The majority of the shops we visited were accessible, but some could do better. The issue in most places is promotions or sales, meaning there is stock put in areas it wouldn't usually be.
Fitting rooms are an issue, there need to be more disabled fitting rooms or some sort of monitoring could be used.
Primark has it right in terms of accessibility, we were really impressed with Primark, their queueing-to-pay system, its lifts, and its fitting rooms, everything is brilliant and is something other stores could take note of.
Dining:
As I said, we went to Starbucks for some lunch. There is a large food court at the Trafford Centre, but I haven't visited for many years or in my wheelchair, so I cannot comment on that. Starbucks, however, was fine, and I have previously visited the John Lewis cafe and Marks and Spencer cafe, and both were absolutely fine.
Parking:
There aren't nearly enough disabled parking spaces at the Trafford Centre in any of their car parks, the ratio of parking spaces to disabled parking spaces is ridiculous.
Lifts:
We didn't have any issues at all in terms of using lifts.
Overall:
We found the Trafford Centre fine to go for a shopping trip, the parking let it down, but overall it was ok and we will return. The main issue is the general public and rudeness, but that isn't the fault of the Trafford Centre, and we did visit on a Sunday.
One thing I feel is worth mentioning, which isn't an accessibility issue, is that the 4/5g signal in the Trafford Centre is appalling. We wanted to use my daughter's student discount code in Kiko, but due to the signal, we couldn't get on the website, in turn, we lost out on a 15% discount, which made a difference and was disappointing, to say the least.
My advice would be, for any shops you are likely to go to that take student discounts, get the codes before you leave and screenshot them so you can use them when you're in the shops.
Our star rating for the Trafford Centre's overall experience is:
★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6 out of 10 and we will definitely visit again.
Have you visited the Trafford Centre as a disabled person or with a disabled person? What did you think?
Also, please let me know if there are any areas in particular you'd like me to include in these posts, and I will happily include them.
Thank you for reading
Zoë x
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