Singing in the aisles - updated opinion (Asda)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Asda
Date:	20/12/00 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good prices, Efficient staff, Good management

Disadvantages: Gets very busy

I always used to do most of my supermarket shopping at Tesco’s in the centre of Walsall. I worked in the Council House so I was only a few yards away. Since I have finished work and spend most of my time in and around home at Bloxwich my new shopping venue has become Asda, which is just across the road.

The prices in Asda are generally lower than other main supermarkets, Sainsburys, Tesco’s and definitely Safeway! You can buy saving stamps during the year to use towards the cost of Christmas. If you put 95 x £1 stamps on your card and then redeem it between the middle of November and the beginning of January you get £100 worth of shopping.

Our Asda here in Bloxwich isn’t one of the bigger ones so the stock is limited but we still have:-
Food – fresh, packaged or frozen and a bakery, deli counter and butcher’s.
A wide range of alcohol and soft drinks.
Newspapers, magazines, stamps, cigarettes and lottery tickets.
Ladies and children’s clothes.
Greetings cards, wrapping paper, etc.
Video’s, CDs, DVDs, Playstation games, computer games and audiocassettes.
Televisions and video recorders
Seasonal goods, such as gardening tools and plant food, Christmas decorations, Easter presents etc.
In the summer there’s garden plants, gro bags, compost and peat for sale in the foyer.

George Davis designs the clothing and there is some really good stuff there. Unfortunately our Asda no longer stocks men’s clothes and we don’t have room for a changing room either. You have to buy the clothes come home and try them on and return them if they don’t suit. Returns are never a problem though.

Even though their prices are the lowest of the supermarkets they also do an offer called admatch. If you can produce an advert offering an item for a lower price than that which Asda is currently selling the item for, they will match that price. So when the other
supermarkets produce their flyers showing the special offers, I take the advert into Asda and still do my shopping there, as it is more convenient for me.

BUT there is an added benefit to this. Imagine if you will Asda is selling an item at £1.25 or 2 for £2. When you take the two items to the till they both scan at £1.25 each and then the balance is reduced by 50p by an offer pre-set into the till, which recognises that 2 of that particular product have been bought. So now imagine this scenario, you get your weekly flyer from Safeways and this same item is on offer at 75p. You go into Asda with your flyer and buy two of the items. This time they are scanned at 75p each – but – the till still recognises that two have been purchased and takes off the 50p as well!

I have used this on Walker’s crisps, Caffrey’s beer, Muller yoghurts, biscuits, sweets, bread, cakes and still the list goes on. Add this to the fact that you can use many of the money off vouchers from magazines whether you buy the product or not and you've got yourself a really good deal. On that subject Asda usually only accept vouchers up to half of the value of your shopping.

The staff who work at our branch of Asda are very helpful. They have staff available to pack your bags if needed, to fetch anything that you have forgotten on your way round the store and Q busters to take over any available checkouts when the queues build up. They even have ’brolley patrol’ members who will walk you to your car carrying an umbrella over you if it is raining. Staff are also encouraged to learn sign language in order that they might communicate effectively with deaf people. We have a lady who works in Asda at out BSL class.

They have a wide range of trolleys as well as the usual baskets. There are large deep trolleys, higher shallower ones to save you bending down so far, ones with various combinations of babies and children’s seats
in them and ones that will clip on the front of a wheelchair.

The children from local schools sometimes do bag packing when they are collecting to try and buy a particular piece of equipment or to go on a school trip. They stand at the checkouts and help to pack your bags and hope that you will put a small donation in the bucket, which is there for that purpose.

The manager is often seen helping out on the checkouts when the store is busy and I have even seen him delivering a telephone message to one of the checkout operators from her son who had just rung the store.

Complaints are dealt with quickly and efficiently either in store or if you choose to write to head office. The last time I had cause to speak to the in store customer services they not only corrected the mistake that they had made but they gave me a couple of gift vouchers by way of an apology too!

And the singing? Well the music played while you shop in our store is mainly 60’s and 70’s songs so it’s quite normal to pass people pushing their trolleys singing away to themselves – I do it myself!

Summary: