Walmart (WMT) -) is gearing up for a busy back-to-school shopping season by making sure that its in-store shopping experience is accessible to everyone.
The company will offer "sensory-friendly" hours on Saturdays in July and throughout August between 8 AM and 10 AM in most stores. For stores in areas that begin school after Labor day, those hours will begin July 22.
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"We are striving every day to create a culture where everyone feels they belong. This year, Walmart is taking steps toward creating a quieter shopping environment that’s more enjoyable for customers who live with sensory disabilities," Walmart said in a press release.
Sensory sensitivity refers to how well a person can manage their sensory channels: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and pain.
Sensory sensitivity affects between 5% and 16.5% of the general population, according to the National Institutes of Health. Those estimates are higher for clinical population, such as those on the autism spectrum and those who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Walmart is pushing to overtake rival Amazon (AMZN) -) by leveraging its sizeable lead as a brick and mortar retailer while also expanding its home delivery apparatus.
Walmart is actively courting the delivery-minded with its new 2.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in McCordsville, located about 20 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
The McCordsville site is the largest fulfillment center Walmart has ever built, and it's the second of four large fulfillment centers to be built in the next three years.
The company is also investing in the future of retail.
The company recently announced that it is creating an accelerator program for startups developing emerging technologies like the metaverse, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.
One of the program’s focuses is the development of decentralized e-commerce, which allows merchants to develop their own native payments systems without having to forward transactions to a centralized authority.
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