Hi, it’s Emily and William here in Carluccios writing our column on a dark Friday evening.

Did you read our article about shopping last week? You may remember we said we’d have some solutions which might be helpful.

Well, one could be that shops offer a service where shop assistants help you find products online they don’t have in store, and order them in. For example, I Emily might want to treat myself to a new outfit at M&Co, but can’t find the size or the style I like. So I would tell an assistant what I’m looking for and they’d look for it online. If they don’t have the outfit in store, they’d order it in. We think this service could range from clothes to cookers to carrots and computers!

Another idea is to support people better who don’t use computers, bank cards or need help to buy things online. We’d love to see libraries being able to set up a shopping bank account for people. People who have this account could pay cash into it. Then, when these people want to buy something, they book a slot with a library advisor, who would assist them to go online and find the items they are looking for, at a reasonable price.

These items would be purchased through their shopping account and could be delivered to the library or people’s homes. The library then contact you, however is best for you, when they’re ready for collection.

For people who can’t get to the library, there could be a computer van to deliver the same service to people’s homes. This is especially important for people in rural areas, who can be isolated and find it hard to get out and about.

We’d hope the library managers are reading this. We need your help!

The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset