Supermarket Industry Expert Opines on Trip and Fall Resulting in Permanent Injury

The retailer is required to provide a “relatively safe environment for its guests (or customers).” There are several factors that will substantiate that the retailer failed to provide a safe, non-hazardous shopping venue. Generally, determining what these factors are requires an expert to examine each and every condition at the scene of the accident including: Display construction, usage, method of merchandising, aisle widths, floor condition, lighting in the area, store policy and protocol, and actual procedure for inspecting the store on a 15 minute to 30 minute basis. My belief is that, all too often, store managers or department managers, in an attempt to increase sales, take the liberty to violate local building code regulations as well as ADA Standards to reclaim space for selling, which could possibly be the case here. My guess is that there might have been a shopping cart in use by the customer at the time, which also could have been faulty and should be examined.