Entering a store and doing your shopping is a simple, almost automatic gesture. But for some people it can become a time full of fatigue: lights that are too bright, sudden noises, continuous stimuli that generate anxiety and disorientation.
But in Verona there is a space that has chosen to overturn this perspective. It’s called “A different way of shopping” and it is the first neuro-inclusive store in Italy, designed to truly welcome everyone, without separate aisles and without making anyone feel like an exception.
Here every detail arises from a simple question: how can a place adapt to people, and not the other way around? The lights are softer, the sounds controlled, the environment more predictable. Those who need it can use a sensory kit with noise-cancelling headphones, filter glasses and tactile tools, even in the form of games, to find balance and serenity while shopping. Small gestures that restore something essential: the possibility of living a daily space without fear or overload.
The project was born from the meeting between Thomas Davineurodivergent entrepreneur and founder of Neuro-Sive, an Italian company that offers solutions for neuroinclusion, and Dario Allegrafounder of Sicilia Frutta, united by the belief that cognitive and sensorial diversity is not a limit, but a natural part of the human experience.
The shop welcomes people on the autistic spectrum, with ADHD or sensory hypersensitivity, but also those who experience moments of anxiety or fragility. And not only that: it is a place open to the entire community, where inclusion becomes a daily practice.
This vision is also intertwined with social and environmental sustainability. A wall dedicated to self-regulation was built with recycled materials, while seasonal fruit and vegetables are sold at affordable prices, to concretely support families and reduce waste. In the coming months, the space will also become a place of training, offering young neurodivergent people the opportunity to learn a job and build autonomy.
It’s not just a shop, but a new way of imagining common spaces. A place where no one has to adapt, because it is the environment that becomes welcoming. Where shopping goes back to being what it should always be: a simple, dignified gesture, possible for everyone.
