M&S settles ‘David and Goliath’ legal case after installing inaccessible doors to chiller cabinets

Retail giant Marks and Spencer has agreed to pay compensation and make changes to at least one of its stores after installing chilled food cabinets with inaccessible doors that prevented a disabled campaigner from accessing any of the contents.

Flick Williams (pictured) was making a regular visit to her local Marks and Spencer (M&S) food hall in York when she found a refurbishment had made it impossible for her to shop independently for herself and her 91-year-old mother.

Complaints she raised last autumn about retail chains installing inaccessible doors on their chiller cabinets led to Disability News Service reporting similar concerns with Co-op, Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

Williams, a visually-impaired wheelchair-user, could not even find the items she wanted because the doors were misted up, and she found it impossible to open the doors.

When the retired disability equality trainer and access consultant tried to find someone to help her, there were no staff members available, and the customer service desk had been removed during the refurbishment.

She said: “I was getting more and more distressed as the realisation of the permanence of these changes was sinking in and I was frustrated that there was nobody available to help me, so I left the store without being able to make a purchase.”

She was later told the changes were made for energy efficiency reasons, and that she should ring the store before her next visit to make sure a member of staff was available to assist her with her shopping.

But she said: “I couldn’t accept that. Non-disabled people aren’t expected to telephone in advance of going shopping, which makes it discriminatory.”

She said she had faced problems in other supermarkets, but the situation in the M&S food hall was “by far the worst”, and it was somewhere she needs to visit regularly.

Now M&S has reached an out-of-court legal settlement, including a small payment, after she took a disability discrimination case under the Equality Act.

She could still take legal action against other retailers if they fail to make reasonable adjustments, which may be more likely because of falling staffing levels.

She said the main purpose of taking the case against M&S was to gain recognition that customers were “unnecessarily disabled” by the refurbishments, and to secure changes to the chiller cabinets that would “make them easier for customers to use without compromising energy saving efficiency”.

The retailer has already agreed to lower the handles on the chiller doors, treat the doors to stop them misting up, and remove wire racks from the floor that were making it even harder to reach into the cabinets.

It also pledged that staff would be available to assist customers.

Williams said: “When I posted about the incident on social media I was overwhelmed by the response.

“I had 11,000 likes and 331 replies, demonstrating that this was an issue affecting many people’s ability to shop independently as they always had done.

“And that strengthened my resolve to seek legal redress.

“It was a David and Goliath fight that shows disabled people don’t have to just sit back and accept discrimination; we can and will challenge unfair practices.

“I’m delighted that the changes to the store resulting from my case have removed some of the barriers that made it unreasonably difficult for many to shop there.

“Retailers must be made to understand that the Equality Act 2010 applies to them, and they need to work with access consultants to ensure their store changes work better for everyone across all impairment groups.”

M&S declined to apologise for its discriminatory actions, or to confirm what actions it had made to the store, and others around the country, because of the case.

But a spokesperson said in a statement: “We are committed to making our stores accessible to all our customers, and work with AccessAble to help us do that with access guides covering inside and outside our stores.

“We always strive to ensure colleagues are on hand to help every customer and we always take customer feedback on board.

“We’re grateful for Ms Williams’ engagement on how we can continue to improve accessibility in store.”

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