Young Aaron Maxwell loves everything about Asda and wants to drive one of our lorries when he's older – so he had a brilliant time when colleagues at our Falkirk store arranged for him to sit in the driver's cab during an exclusive tour.
Aaron, who's 11 and has autism, visits the store with his mum Hayley every week. The store's community champion Margaret Bradie found out about his love for the lorries and organised a behind-the-scenes visit, where he also had a go on the tills and made his own pizza.
Hayley said: "He had a ball during the tour – thank you Asda. He was so excited, you would think he'd won the lottery! It was a lovely thing for them to do. He absolutely loved it and was so happy.
"He would have stayed there all day if he could – he'd love to drive an Asda lorry when he's older.
"His autism means he gets attached to things. He's obsessed with lorries and his favourites are Asda lorries – he loves them and is fascinated by them.
"We go shopping in Asda once a week and he wants to see the lorries every time we go in."
Aaron's grandma Ann Douglas worked at the store for 30 years until she retired last year – and Hayley said the visit came about from Ann chatting to Margaret about how much Aaron loves Asda lorries.
"Margaret very kindly arranged for him to take a closer look at them during a store tour," said Hayley. "We know a lot of the staff and, like Margaret, they're all excellent with him. It's quite a busy store, but they all take the time to chat to him.
"He loves putting shopping through the self scan, and they always show him how to do it and let him do it for himself.
"This time they showed him how to work a checkout too."
Margaret said: "He was so excited! It made my day to help him and see how much he enjoyed himself.
"We're now hoping to organise a visit for him to one of our distribution depots to see even more of the lorries."
Aaron lives with Hayley, dad Gregor and little brother Kyle.
Hayley says she hopes the visit will help Aaron grow in confidence.
She said: "He used to be quite shy and his autism meant he used to be scared of loud noises, but he's really coming out of his shell now.
"He's a real wee character; he's quite funny and is really comfortable chatting to adults now."
