The Carrefour group, which has made disability the main cause of its 2026 plan, is taking action in its stores. On Friday, the distributor launched a pilot project in its hypermarket in Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine), which becomes the first handicapped-accessible store in France. Combining common sense and technological innovations, the brand offers a race course adapted to people with disabilities.
To implement this system efficiently, round tables were organized with disabled customers in order to bring up “the irritants”. Checkout, orientation in the store, the practicality of the purchasing process, digital accessibility and the product offering adapted to their needs, have been identified among the main points for improvement. A dozen amenities and practices were therefore installed in this first store to meet these needs.
Upon entry, disabled customers have a dedicated reception center. They can benefit from support from a colleague, and equipment is available to them, such as pre-emption poles, or trolleys designed to attach to wheelchairs. Charlotte Alaux, paraplegic, has just tested one of them. “The trolley is easy to attach to my chair and easy to handle, and the two soft shopping bags attached to it are very practical.” The young woman also appreciates the call box in the organic “Bulk” section, where she can request the assistance of an employee to be served. “When I press the button, I have a contact who answers me and tells me how long it will take to get to me. It’s not like certain devices where you don’t know if the signal has been taken into account, and where you stay waiting hoping that someone will move.”
To help the visually impaired, Braille maps are available, as well as the Oorion application which allows them to find their way easily. Floor guide strips have also been deployed in the store. Carrefour has also formed a partnership with the start-up Handivisible, created by Maïté Ferdinand. This young woman has a non-visible disability, and one of her difficulties is waiting while standing in a static position. Thanks to the Handivisible application, people in the same situation as Maïté can communicate, via a light signal, to checkout staff or traditional departments, without having to justify themselves to other customers. “Certain measures may seem trivial, but they are essential to improve the lives of our disabled customers,” assures Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour.
The distributor also supports companies that work for people with disabilities. It thus references agri-food products from Fier, manufactured in Esat (establishment and work-related assistance service), as well as the Café Joyeux brand.
Carrefour, which plans to employ 15,000 disabled employees by the end of 2026, or 5,000 more than currently, has been training its staff to support disabled customers for two years. Employees notably learned ten essential gestures in French sign language. The brand, which has joined forces with the Autisme France association, has already set up silent hours in its stores. During this time, the music is stopped and the lighting dimmed, in order to provide a more soothing environment for people suffering from autistic disorders. This new system will be extended to ten other hypermarkets in France, and around fifty local stores in Paris by summer 2024.
