Bargain produce and surly staff in Aisle 4 please! Thankyou! (Asda)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Asda
Date:	20/11/08 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value products

Disadvantages: Bad value customer service

ASDA is a large supermarket chain that has traditionally had the name of being a lower budget shopping experience but not as good as some other giants such as Tesco or Sainsbury's. However, with the credit crunch and, dare I say it, recession, couding our horizons as we speak, ASDA is fast becoming the most popular supermarket for the general shoppers.

And, so, last week, not to get a bargain but because it was closest at the time, we had our first foray into the nearest ASDA to us. It is a relatively new store, having only been opened about 6 months ago, I believe, and is at the end of a discounted shopping 'village', where the stores are all retail outlets featuring off-sales and heavily discounted goods. As such, this is probably a very good place for a store such as ASDA to set up shop, and the place was thronging when we parked up.

Parking is free for up to 2 hours, to ensure turnover of customers and to avoid people abusing the parking system to go elsewhere. On entry, the store had a lively and cos feel about it, which soon disappeared rather quickly as we went around the aisles. There was nothing necessarily wrong with the goods on the shelves, but it seemed like everything had been really crammed in in a short space of time.

As everything was rather hard to find, we had to ask a number of staff questions, and after the first couple of questions, we were met no with hostility, but with the attitude that they would much rather be doing something else than help us. This bugged me a little bit, as it was late and we just wanted to do a quick shop and go home - the staff hadn't helped.

As we went round the store, what we did notice is that there were a number of good quality items at very decent prices. Wondering what the catch was, we examined a few of these before realising that there was no catch, and that ASDA was turning out to be a very well priced store, and no wonder it was busy! We managed to deck ourselves out with a lovely Indian meal, easily for 3 but the two of us were hungry (!) for much less than you would get it for in other supermarkets such as the two forerunners Tesco and Sainsbury's.

I guess if you are not fussed about the finer details of the produce, such as where it comes from and where was it made, then ASDA is great, as their prices reflect an economic situation and make it easier for us to shop and eat. We didn't particularly for organic food or produce that was specifically made in this country, but some of the products I did notice were rather elevated in price, but only as you would expect in any other supermarket as well.

So, we arrived at the checkout, and sadly were met with more dull expressions and a lack of care as the checkout lady attempted to break all records known to man as she beeped our items through, barking the figure at us and then staring bemusedly at me as I gave a quizzical look. We were tired and grumpy and wanted to go home, so I didn't press it, but it was another example of bad customer service, twice in one store.

Having tried most of the items we got from ASDA, we were very pleasantly surprised, particularly with our Indian meal, and would probably use the store again if we were around that way for that type of thing. As far as doing a regular shop is concerned, I think we'll stick with our regular places. I like to have a relaxed and enjoyable shopping experience, but get it over with smoothly and quickly without fuss, but the feeling that I've been looked after, and sadly, I didn't feel very looked after in ASDA. The items are good, the service is not, so I'm sitting on the supermarket fence with this one.

Summary: Great place to get cheap produce, but not so hot on the customer service front