General Chat

Does anyone have a relative or friend who manages to shop for themselves even though they are partially sighted.?.... Any tips?
We are trying to enable someone ( many miles away) to hold on to her independence.
She can manage to see enough to go out alone and select items from supermarket shelves, as long as they don't change displays too often, but has difficulties when it comes to paying.
Rather than hold up any other customers, she pays with a larger value note and tucks away the change.
Next shop eg. chemist she would ask for what she wants and again pay with paper money.
At the end of a shopping trip, she ends up with rather too many coins sometimes. Hopefully she is given the correct change.

She is very alert mentally, is in her 90s and we are keen to help keep her active and managing her needs. We do visit frequently with bulky / heavy general household shopping, but wondered if there is an easier way of paying. She couldn't be sure of selecting correct numbers to type in a pin number for bank card.

Any first hand experience or suggestions would be welcome please.

Gwyn

Tesco and Waitrose have scanners which you can take around the store with you. The price comes up on the ez2read scanner and it keeps a running total.

Yr rellie should use a debit card not £ 20 notes which is dangerous.

I agree, Rollo, flashing money is dangerous - but trying to see the buttons, let alone the numbers on a card reader is difficult for the mildly short sighted, let alone partially sighted.

hello
I am part sighted

if you go to your bank you can arrange to still sign your card no problem

you can get plstick coin holders

you need to look on the R N I B web site plenty of gagetdts and advise on there

hope this helps

sally w <3

Why not speak to the managers of her local stores. I'm sure they would be only too happy to help.
Our local Waitrose has assistants helping elderly customers to shop.

If the amount is under £20 you can just touch the screen with the card and don't have to put in a pin.
Of course the shop has to have such a reader but a lot of my local shops have them.

Von

Lots of ideas here ..Thank you for your help and input.
Sally it is good to know that there is special help available.
She has raised red sticker dots from the R.N.I.B to help her with switches/ buttons for example on the microwave, so we will look to see what else might be useful to her.

The assistants in her local supermarket are very helpful. One chap in particular will talk her through any special offers on items she is wanting to buy.

It occured to me that Sainsburys have a student card, which parents can load with money, so that offspring in a distant college or uni. can use it for food etc.
I spoke to someone in customer service at one of our local stores today and a similar card might be just what we need. We can load it with money if necessary from here and she can just have the card swiped and the shopping bill will be deducted from the running total..no pin numbers required, so she won't have to fumble with money or key pads. We see her every few weeks, so can put more money on the card then.
We will talk to her about this and see what she thinks.

Gwyn

glad to be of help

I can not see my writing so a thumb is held above the line to sign I justuse it as a guide

there are so many things that can help

iuse the bumbs as well

of course I have software on here thattalks to me large keyboard that also talks as I touch the letters

magnification of the screen

make sure she uses her white stick as it tells she might need some space help etc

sally w <3

How about buying store gift cards?? will they go towards shopping?

once had to return a video player to Sainsbury's and they gave me a gift card instead of my money back.......

Bob

Sally
It's good to know that modern technology is working so well to help you.
Well done.

Bob
I think the cards I mentioned work in a similar way, but not all the money is spent at one time. eg. suppose we loaded it with £50 and next week's shopping came to £16, then she would still have £34 held on the card to spend another time. We could top up the same actual card from here without the need for her to do anything or we could just put more money on when we visit her.
She is very capable of managing her own money, it's just the actual seeing clearly that is a problem. Until this summer, her husband helped, but now she is a widow we want to enable her to manage to keep looking after herself as long as possible.

Gwyn

The Sainsbury card is working well.

We loaded it with £60, but registered it with her Nectar card details, so she can still collect points.
She is really pleased with how easy it is to pay for her goods.
OH can keep an eye on the total and top up again from here online, if the balance is getting low before our next visit.
Success !

Gwyn

Thank you for the up date Gwyn -I have been very interested in this thread

so pleased you have found a way that works

sally w <3