Written by Ben Horner, HR Director 

Tomorrow, Boots is celebrating Purple Tuesday; a day on which organisations like ours are called to take action to better understand the needs of disabled customers and to put solutions in place to support them.

Statistically, one in every five of our UK customers will have a disability and at least half of our customers are connected to a disabled person. 

As the 2021 Purple Tuesday Health and Beauty Sector Partner, we are committed to highlighting the needs of disabled customers across the UK.

I am proud that our team members will always look to provide exemplary service to every customer in store and, earlier this year, we introduced the hidden disability lanyard scheme and trained our teams to help create an even more inclusive shopping environment for our disabled customers. We also have at least one trained Dementia Friend in all our stores and our Boots.com and estates teams work hard every day to make sure our digital and store shopping environments are as accessible as possible. 

But we know we can always do more to make shopping experiences more inclusive and so, on Purple Tuesday, we’re re-emphasising our commitment to disability awareness training for all team members. As the Boots UK Executive Champion for Disability Inclusion, I know that a continued focus on disability inclusion will result in the best and most accessible experience for our disabled customers.

Purple Tuesday launches in Piccadilly Circus tomorrow morning when the lights will turn purple and, to show our support, we’re turning our Boots logo purple too. We’re asking our team members to help us celebrate by posting a photo giving a ‘thumbs up’ for disability inclusion or by wearing something purple. Customers are welcome to join us too! Share your pictures with the hashtag #PurpleTuesday on social media.

I hope everyone will join me in raising awareness about disability inclusion – not just tomorrow, but every day!