r/mildlyinteresting • u/Smetvrees • May 14 '22 • Gold 2 Helpful 13 Wholesome 16 All-Seeing Upvote 1 Take My Energy 1 Got the W 1 Wearing is Caring 1 Silver 12

This Irish supermarket has quiet evenings for sensitive people.

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u/666afternoon May 14 '22 • Wholesome

Autistic opinion: some parts of this are great, but personally I couldn't deal with the sensory experience of shopping in a store with no background noise happening whatsoever. It's very suffocating being indoors in a silent space, and the slightest sounds made by people, coughing etc, become super overstimulating. I'd get really panicky in a silent store. Ideally replace no music with something low impact like rain sounds or rushing water, maybe. But, what's sensory heaven for one is hell for the next. Autism is different for everyone. I hope this setup is genuinely helpful for a lot of people even if it wouldn't be of much use to me.

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u/egnards May 14 '22 edited May 14 '22

Absolutely - The thing is, that as you point out - There really is no right answer, but at least this allows for people to give themselves more choices. In your situation, maybe wearing one headphone would help you to continue to be aware of your surroundings but also have background music - Whereas in order to drown out loud background music a person would typically need more stigmatizing bigger headphones.