Marlborough’s impressive new Mobility Store opened its doors yesterday (Wednesday), just a stone’s throw from the tiny extension to the Kennet Pharmacy premises launched last September on the other side of Figgins Lane.
With some 2,000 square feet now available to display a vast range of products and services – from a top of the range scooter costing £5,000 and electricity-operated reclining chairs to wheeled walking frames and traditional commodes – it has an expanding market in which to operate.
That was the vital message as Chancellor George Osborne announced a no growth budget – it’s “all goodies tomorrow, not today,” as one critic put it.
“We may have opened at a tough moment economically but, at the same time, we have great mobility as the population is ageing and in need of our help and advice,” Willie McIvor, one of the three directors behind the enterprise, told Marlborough News Online.
“Eighty to 90 per cent of our customers are, of course, age related. So we have an expanding clientele – and with this, our third mobility store, we have the experience to provide for their needs as well as servicing their scooters.”
With an upmarket population, the new Marlborough Mobility Store is able to provide a pick-up service facility for scooter users in the community as well as seven dedicated free parking spots outside the spacious new premises.
“We take a van with a ramp to people’s houses and bring their scooters here – and then take them back again – as part of our servicing facility,” explained Mr McIvor.
“We were unable before to show the full range of mobility scooters and reclining chairs now available. Sales were low because we just didn’t have the floor space, and all the scooter servicing was done at our Mobility Store in Wroughton, near Swindon.”
And he added: “The joy of the job is to see the smile on people’s faces as they drive off for the first time on their scooters. But we do screen our customers carefully to ensure that they are capable of controlling them.”
“When somebody buys a scooter we take it to their house and give them a test drive in their local area just to make sure they are safe and know what they are doing taking them on the pavements of the town.”
Prices for scooters range from £300 for second-hand machine to £5,000 for a top of the range machine with, at £2,500, a big three-wheeler machine that looks like a Harley Davidson motorbike.
People with a social need for such machines can apply for grants from Wiltshire Council for scooter. “As long as they have a chronic condition such as arthritis, it’s a self-declaring scheme – you don’t have to be diagnosed – and you don’t pay VAT on the machines,” revealed Mr McIvor.
But scooters are but one part of the business.
Stair lifts, seats you can fit in your shower, disposable bed protectors, wheelchairs and even little hooks you can put on an electric plug to make it easier to pull out, pliable cutlery, hearing aids are all available.
“And for people who have just come out of hospital there are commodes,” said Mr McIvor. “If you can’t get from your bed to the toilet, then commodes are important. “They have always been there is history – along with chamber pots.”
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