Supermarket chain Morrisons has changed its shopping rules. The supermarket currently has quiet hours between 9am and 10am on Saturdays, plus the first hour of opening on Sundays. It has now extended its quiet hours to include 2pm to 3pm every Monday to Thursday.

The announcement coincided with World Autism Acceptance Week from April 2 to April 8. The chain declared: ‘The initiative is for people who may struggle with music and other loud noises, for example those who have been diagnosed as autistic.’ Daniel Cadey of the National Autistic Society said: ‘Around 700,000 people are on the autism spectrum in the UK. This means they see, hear and feel the world differently to other people, often in a more intense way. Morrisons’ Quieter Hour is a step in the right direction for autistic people who find supermarket shopping a real struggle.’ (A Quieter Hour involves dimming lights, turning piped music and radios off, also making no loud tannoy announcements, plus turning down checkout beeps and other electrical noises.)

This is very good news from a large supermarket chain, not just for those with autism or the many other problems that make people unusually vulnerable to noise, but for everyone who hates piped music. We comprise about a third of the population, according to most surveys. We should quote Morrisons’ move to other chains in arguments and push Morrisons itself to extend their Quiet Hours much further, because most of the time their supermarkets are still cacophonous.