Asda Lavista (Asda)

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Product:	Asda
Date:	13/11/00 (5 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: If you can't count, ignore signs

Disadvantages: Credit cards

Our local Asda.

To the left of the entrance there are six disabled parking bays. Immediately by the entrance there are two hole in the wall cash machines which just invites non disabled people to park in the disabled bays whilst they "nip out" and get some cash. O.K. so it only takes a minute or two if there isn't a queue and there usually is, but in that time some disabled driver comes along, finds all the bays full so he has to go to the other side of the main door to find a disabled spot, which can be as much as fifty or sixty yards away from the entrance. However these are usually full of non-disabled drivers as they seem to think that being so far away no real disabled driver would use them. At least in that they are probably right 'cos you can find a normal parking bay closer to the entrance than some of the bays set aside.

However if the hole in the wall user doesn't use the bays because they are smitten with a sudden attack of conscience, some drivers park across the bays thus preventing a disabled motorist from getting in or out.

To cap it all when the security van arrives to check and re-fill the machines it will also park in a disabled bay if there is one free. It took 6 complaints to the store manager over a period of some nine months before finally the message got through. He was always very apologetic and said that he would see to it but the van wasn't moved until the driver was ready to go. In the end it was a threat of writing to head office which seemed to do the trick.

But stone me now the security van parks and blocks off one or two bays if they happen to be empty on his arrival, just so that he doesn't need to walk a few extra yards with the bag of cash. The manager listens politely and ..........

There are some parking bays close to the store reserved for people with small children and these are closer than most of the disabled parking bays to the right of the store entra
nce. The manager listens politely and ..........

But once inside it is a nice, open, well lit store reasonably well laid out with masses of goods to choose from (mostly Asda's own brand which I don't rate) and staffed by friendly people.

But when it comes to the "ten items or less" check-outs, which are labelled "Express", things go wrong. Apart from the fact that many customers can't count and arrive with more than ten items and the check-out girl doesn't find out until half way through swiping the order so there is nothing that she can do but continue, there is the "express" bit where some guy is buying a sandwich and a cake and uses his cash card to pay. This makes nonsense of the "express" function as by the time his transaction has been processed the lady in the next check-out with a full trolley has been dealt with. Maybe Asda are using the term "express" in the same context as British Rail do.

On balance I guess that Asda is O.K. but I wish that instead of having promotions of 3 for the price of 2 or 25% free or whatever on which they must still make a profit, why don't they make proper and constant reduction?

Summary: