Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shop offers a sweet experience for all

The Victorian-style sweet shop opened up its sweet-shop experience to the visually impaired with its new braille menus.

One location of sweet-shop franchise Mr Simms has taken the initiative to make its store more inclusive to all different kinds of customers. Its Worcester location has launched braille menus to honour its charity of the year New College Worcester, a secondary school for blind or visually impaired children.

The sweet shop has introduced three new menus to its branch so that customers with impaired vision can select exactly which sweets they’d like in their pick’n’mix bags without needing to ask staff for help.

Co-owner of the store, Michelle Rasdall, explained how this year she wanted to pick a charity that helped open up its store experience to everyone:

“When people come into our shop they look around in awe, not knowing where to start. We stock over 1400 different products. It is such a visual experience. We wanted to think of a way to bring that experience to the visually impaired.”

The menus include the top 200 most popular sweets in the store in both braille and enlarged font. Its hoped that the new menus will help the store cater for a wider audience and will encourage other establishments to provide an equal shopping experience for all.

Michelle added:

“I hope that this will encourage others to follow suit and offer braille menus in their cafes and restaurants. There is a big visually impaired community within Worcester and it is important that they feel welcome and accepted. We want to do whatever we can to support people.”

Not only does the franchise want to accommodate disabled customers, but also those with dietary requirements. The store provides sugar-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan products so that no matter what your food choices, there’s always something for you.

The Worcester branch of the franchise is the perfect example of how businesses can stay modern, relevant and accommodating to a 21st century market.

On behalf of New College Worcester, a spokesperson commented:

“NCW is a secondary school for children who are blind or vision impaired. As well as taking students from Worcester, we also have residential students from all over the country. We are extremely grateful to Mr Simms sweet shop who have made us their charity of the year, helping us to raise money and raise awareness for young people who are blind or vision impaired."