The only place you need to shop! (Asda)

Member Name: Blobbo

Product:	Asda
Date:	26/04/01 (749 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly staff, wide aisles, lots of stock, good prices...

Disadvantages: Terrible advertising campaign and no cooked chicken counter!

Despite the absolutely DREADFUL advertising campaign, ASDA are one of the better supermarket chains. I'm sure the fact that their advertising revolves around people slapping their buttocks and skipping slightly to the right may put people off, but give them a try... anyway, I digress, this op is about the store and not the advertising. :)

ASDA stock a huge range of products, ranging from books and CDs to electrical goods to food (obviously). The books are very reasonably priced, with almost every book listed at 50% off RRP. The CDs are also good value at £9.99 each. I usually don't bother shopping for these things online when I can get them this cheap at ASDA. The electrical goods they stock are usually from dubious manufacturers, so I stay away from them, but I've heard good things about them from other people.

The groceries - probably what most people go to ASDA for - are all excellent value, and tend to beat most of the other supermarket chains. ASDA are now also doing 'Price Match' on everything - I don't usually bother with this, but I've seen people standing at tills with leaflets from other stores and saving quite a lot on their shopping. The standard monthly offers are also excellent, and they usually have offers on mainstream groceries like coca cola, walkers crisps, pot noodles etc.

Their fresh food is very fresh and appealing. ASDA have, perhaps, one of the best selections of fruit, vegetables, and fresh nuts. Its one of the only places I can go to get reasonably priced corn cobs and redskin peanuts. They have counters for the standard fare of extras - the snack counter offers some great bargains on things like onion bhaji's and chicken satay's, and the meat counter offers a nice variety also. I don't eat fish, so can't comment on that particular counter. One addition I would like is a cooked chicken counter.

One thing which stands out in ASDA is the fresh pizza counter -
there's nowhere near me which offers this service, and I personally hate frozen pizza and can't abide making my own pizzas. ASDA offer an enormous range of fresh pizzas at good prices, and even make up custom pizzas on request. All of the ingredients are fresh and of the highest quality, ranging from mozzarella cheese to spicy chicken. These pizzas are a great buy and I really recommend you give them a try. They're almost as high quality as restaurant pizzas.

Service at ASDA is also excellent. The till staff are always friendly and willing to chat which makes a change from other stores. An area of the store is usually set aside for suggestions, which are almost always taken note of. There's also a customer service desk which is always staffed - should you need to return anything, there aren't likely to be any problems.

Store layout, at least in my local branch, is excellent. Aisles are wide and its easy to find what you're looking for (if not, ask somebody - they're always happy to help!)

Overall, ASDA is an excellent store and its a pleasure to shop there. Friendly, outgoing staff make shopping enjoyable, and the prices aren't too hard on the wallet. Let's hope they change the dodgy advertising soon, eh? Give them a whirl!

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