Bosworths - Northamptonshire, England, Burton Latimer

Howdy! Before I begin I’d like to note, my sensory is of a fairly low level, I am rarely affected by these things. I am also going during the week when people are at school / work resulting in the shops having little customers.

Let’s begin.

I gave Bosworths a 2.5/3. The shop held a good quantity of decorations, had a very good layout. However, it was fairly cramped. The noise was fairly manageable while I found the lighting to be amazing.

The decorations were outstanding. There were many of all sizes and shapes, including colour and glitter ratio. There seemed to be multiple little ‘sections’ of decorations all colour coordinated so it wasn’t chaotic and matched into it’s grouping. They had many snow globes, statues, baubles, tinsel and more.

Bosworths also had a display once you were a little further in of a fairy aesthetic turned christmas. It was gorgeous, me and my dad ended up going around multiple times.

The layout sent you round, little turnoffs leading you further into other areas of christmas decorations. There was a medium sized stand with a miniature town being built by one of the workers as shops are still setting these things up at this moment in time.

The shop happened to be cramped. If you wished to get by someone, you’d have to squish yourself between a stack of decorations and that person as there was minimal room to move out of eachothers way. I ended up having a lady ram her trolly basket hybrid into my ankles as she wished to get by - though she was simply rude and did not say excuse me.

When you first entered, there was a little dark section with zero lights off to the side of which all of the fairy light type things were placed spread around, resulting in me having no headaches at the sight. I wish more shops did this when there is even the slightest flash in lights as it meant there were no ceiling lights to add to the overwhelming factor.

The noise was manageable. At times I could hear three different songs in the distance of different volumes and speeds playing from decorations someone must have set off. While they lasted for two minutes most and I easily walked away, they were slightly overwhelming. The rest of the shop, however, was extremely peaceful.

Please take what I have written from a low trigger standpoint and adapt it into how you would manage with your difficulties. Have a lovely morning/afternoon/evening/night.

Don’t forget to follow me on social media!

Instagram: @autism.and.i

Twitter: @autismandi1