Supermarket's handmade wheelchair trolley a hit with customers

It took a Durban retail store owner less than 24 hours to come up with a wheelchair-friendly trolley that has delighted physically disabled customers.

Now the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) is challenging all South African supermarkets to follow the example of Richdens Superspar in Hillcrest, where two wheelchair-compatible trolleys are available to customers.

A month ago, Durban resident Dee Beukes spoke to Richdens Superspar owner Marc Anderson about acquiring wheelchair-friendly trolleys as her mother, Pearl, struggled to shop without one.

"Can you imagine the shock and surprise I got when he phoned me the next day to ask if we could pop in to test drive his prototype! He had welded and worked on a test subject in one evening," she wrote on her Facebook page.

Anderson told TimesLIVE on Tuesday that when Beukes approached him, he called the store's handyman to help.

"We started to explore ways to modify a trolley to fit into a wheelchair. We finally got a prototype on the same day," he said.

The trolley was tested for a few days before the final perfected product was presented to customers.

"What is good about the two trolleys available is that they can fit on to any wheelchair," Anderson said.

He created the wheelchair trolley to make customers happy. "That's what it really is all about," he smiled.

Qasa project co-ordinator Ronelle Lyson said the association's members were delighted.

"I posted about it today and I see many shares so I wonder if any other stores will take up the challenge," she said.

Lyson said people in wheelchairs often struggled to shop without aides as juggling a wheelchair with a basket or trolley was tricky.

"Hopefully, we will be seeing a lot more on these wheelchair trolleys in stores," she said.