Is Asda helping out with the cost of living crisis, or taking the piss? Genuine question

It became a public company in 1967, with the Morrison family still running it, so was on the Stock Exchange for a long time. However it was bought out by private equity in 2021.

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duskfinger67@reddit

See my edit - I got mixed up.

Thanks for the clarification.

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Went intoorrison last week for the first time in 6 months. They only sell "common" products now - I can find 2 000 bottle of ketchup, but can't find soy sauce. Nor ginger. No European branded tinned fish.

Eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns it is.

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catchcatchhorrortaxi@reddit

That’s interesting, noticed it in my local - I thought it was just my area and it’s geriatric demographic.

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Basso_69@reddit

No, i6t the Venture Capatilists forcing Corporate to deliver high profits. Corporate then forces Store Managers to drliver higher profits. Managers cut as many staff as they can, but it's not enough. So corporate develops a 'strategy' to focus on high profit lines.

And so the magic begins - we find ourselves in cookie cutter hell.

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CastleMeadowJim@reddit

Morrisons' collapse seemed to happen so rapidly. I went from having them as a top 3 in my area to "fuck this I'll starve shopping here" in less than 3 months.

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MotuekaAFC@reddit

It was a leveraged takeover under very different rate conditions. Now base rate is north of 4% this is turning messy, the financing costs are astronomical. In the FT last weekend ASDA were boasting that they were going to engage in a price war for market share with Tesco and Sainsbury's. But they don't have the balance sheet to absorb the losses from this like those two do. They are fucked. Honestly, I think they will be going under in the next 24 months. This pathetic 'discount' highlights how dire their finances really are.

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cragglerock93@reddit

I think you're reading way too much into these tiny discounts. Basically, the new boss, who is also.the old boss, has a theory about pricing numbers. He doesn't like numbers that end in 0 but does like ones that end in 8. The purpose of this rollback isn't to give genuine discounts but to reset the prices to what the chief executive wants. You might ask why they are then shouting about it on their point of sale like this but I bet you £100 that any rollback, however small, will generate POS like this.

There will be bigger discounts.

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pinkyandthebrain-ama@reddit

I doubt they'd go under that quickly. They're still making healthy money (even after all the debt) but if they keep losing market share at the rate they're doing, they will eventually get to a tipping point where the balance sheet doesn't work out (as the debt payments are so high). Then they'll go down very quickly.

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cedarvhazel@reddit

That sign would have cost them more than the saving!

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OverallResolve@reddit

ASDA has been shit for as long as I can remember

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Boonz-Lee@reddit

Asda and Morrison's were always shite

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aaaaaaaa1273@reddit

Story of most companies

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Emergency_Town3366@reddit

I suspect half the time, these things haven’t been through human review. Computer spots a “reduction” - yay, print a promotional placard out, and put it on display (store staff probably having no say over whether they display it or not).

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Complete_Item9216@reddit

Worryingly these things 99% go through multiple persons after computer flags them up.

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CodeToManagement@reddit

They know it’s happening though. This isn’t a problem it’s their strategy.

It counts towards their x number of prices rolled back count. So it’s good marketing

People who are looking for other things but not paying attention see a bunch of rolled back prices but don’t look too closely and feel good about it

When you get to the checkout all these tiny rollbacks add together and push the discount total up which helps you think you saved money.

And realistically anyone who was going to buy the item will still buy it, some people who weren’t see it was discounted without looking closely and will buy it because of that false saving, and it doesn’t affect people who were never going to buy it and need a different product.

This isn’t a case of look stupid asda just following what the computer says. This is a corporate strategy.

If they needed to fix this it’s literally one line of code added into the system which selects the items to print labels for, they just need to define the minimum saving required to print a label then : If old price - new price >= minSaving then print label.

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eggmayonnaise@reddit

Also, I often consider the obscene amount of paper and ink that goes into printing all these discount labels, the fuel burned on delivering them, the human hours spent putting them on the shelves that could've been spent helping human customers who now have to struggle with self service checkouts.... Ugh.

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cragglerock93@reddit

Self service checkouts aren't hard. If you're struggling, then you do have to wonder.

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eggmayonnaise@reddit

Even if you know exactly how to use them they can still throw roadblocks in your face and force you to call for help.

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qwertysam95@reddit

Yesterday I bought some pancakes from Aldi where the price had one of those big red "NEW PRICE!" labels. It was discounted to £2.48 from £2.49.

100% these are automated by a computer, and a lowly human just follows orders and puts the sign there.

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Greengrass7772@reddit

Look at their bags of iceberg lettuce, 65p with a cross through and now 64p.

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Wipedout89@reddit

When you see price cuts like this, it's just Asda gaming the stats.

"We rolled back 2,000 prices this week" --- we didn't tell you that 95% of them are like this

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

The rollback prices were also supposed to last for 12 weeks, but they didn't: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/data-asda-pulls-plug-early-on-thousands-of-rollback-price-promotions/703619.article

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pinpoint321@reddit

Asda are a set of robbing pricks. The amount of times I’ve scanned things and the prices are higher than what’s labelled on the shelf. Happened the other day with some cat food. The assistant didn’t even go to check she just changed it.

I always look out for this but so many people must miss it and are basically being scammed.

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New-Platypus3988@reddit

ASDA stores are so under budget that it's not uncommon for label swaps to fall behind causing these issues It might not be intentional but it sure is still ASDA's fault and responsibility

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km6669@reddit

People like you were the bane of my life working in supermarkets. A bored 16 year old forgets to remove a label and somebody like you comes charging up to the customer service desk, all red faced, veins popping screaming about fraud or some bollocks.

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NoAbbreviations1492@reddit

This is such a WILD take for a reply to that comment. Talk about lack of accountability

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km6669@reddit

Accountability? You think a minimum wage shelf stacker should be sacked over not removing an offer tag, that gets honoured anyway if the mistake is pointed out?

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NoAbbreviations1492@reddit

Where did I say they should be sacked? God why are you so hostile it’s embarrassing

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km6669@reddit

Years spent dealing with people like you who take any opportunhity to get aggressive with supermarket staff.

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pajamakitten@reddit

Except the guy you are replying to is clearly being very polite, while you are the one losing your cool.

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km6669@reddit

You're obviously blessed to have never worked in retail and had to deal with thick, raggy, middle aged people who think having to ask a member of staff to check an offer is the perfect outlet for their pent up rage.

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NoAbbreviations1492@reddit

Dude you don’t know me I’m the most chill guy in the world I’ve never gotten aggressive with anyone in my life let alone supermarket staff. This weird narrative you’ve just spun is actually very cringe

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zymoticsheep@reddit

I've gotta say, there's something quite hilarious about the most chill guy in the world getting involved in arguments with a total stranger on a thread about Asda

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strasxi@reddit

Why are you lashing out like a child? Have a rational conversation or don't reply.

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VolcanicBear@reddit

bored 16 year old

Because they are a child.

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strasxi@reddit

They were speaking in the past tense so I assumed they weren’t but who knows…

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Helpful-Fennel-7468@reddit

With a dosser job like that you’d think you’d want to work your way out 😂

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TheRealSectimus@reddit

I didn't think having accurate pricing was too much to ask for as a customer.

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km6669@reddit

Any mistakes in displayed prices will always be honoured. It isnt a scam. They dont have a staff meeting in the morning plotting ways to skim an extra 10p on a can of beans ffs.

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funnytoenail@reddit

I think, what the commenter wasn’t moaning about the “what”, but more so the “how”

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tittychittybangbang@reddit

Oh my god! Asda is my go to as they’re the closest to us, thank you for this because I will be making sure to check everything now. Already feeling like the rewards card does barely anything, what a bunch of bastards

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Cunningcod@reddit

Rewards card was good for a bit when it first came out, actually felt like I was getting something back. Now it’s poor, do the whole weeks shop and then look and I’m still £20 away from getting 25p on my card.

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HankScorpio_GlobexCC@reddit

Having worked in Asda for years, this is almost always down to being short staffed/overworked and having no one to do the daily price changes.

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Serious-Law464@reddit

Not robbing or scamming, generally human error, possibly computer errors.

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Throwaway91847817@reddit

“No no, I couldn’t possibly have made the mistake! It’s clearly a scam!”

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atsevoN@reddit

Because they don’t have enough staff to keep up with the price changes. It’s done manually with a printer unlike places like Aldi where it’s electronic. Bare in mind a single person could have thousands of price changes to do a week

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Tigerlilly3650@reddit

I find this happens a lot in Co-Op stores, too.

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worthingtoncreamer@reddit

I've worked for Asda recently and it's a disorganised mess no where near enough staff to do price changes. So things are often the wrong price as the promo label has been left out, but prices have gone up. It's terrible whilst I work there I shop at Lidl, much better company.

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Psycho_Splodge@reddit

I find Morrisons the worst for this. There's pretty much no point checking the price.

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Educational_Bag_8655@reddit

Complete piss like after drinking 6litres of cider, only that the silly consumers are pissing shillings on em

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Tallicaboy85@reddit

I seen an offer in asda where magnum ice creams are 1.98 a packet or its 2 packets for 5 quid 😆

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AccomplishedComplex8@reddit

Yeah i don't get it. Do i pay original price and the discount goes into my app? Why show me how much it was before ? Show off...

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Top_Recipe_9285@reddit

Roll back to last week price.

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Wonderful_Falcon_318@reddit

0.75-1% discount 😂

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Heavy-Locksmith-3767@reddit

Morrisons just as bad

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isabellelaneldn@reddit

Cozzy Livs

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Current_Professor_33@reddit

Platty joobs

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isabellelaneldn@reddit

banny hols

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LNGBandit77@reddit

I was nearly sick

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isabellelaneldn@reddit

caused you to have a menty b?

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AfcWimbledon_@reddit

fancy a glass of savvy b to help you with that menty b? x

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isabellelaneldn@reddit

Slay girl slay

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deprevino@reddit

Every supermarket is like this to some extent, honestly. Print out HUGE labels when the cost of something is reduced by a few pence, but say nothing when it's up by 20p.

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kifflington@reddit

I wonder how much the rollback signs cost, and how much more could be taken off the food cost if they just reduced the prices without making such a song and dance about it?

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cragglerock93@reddit

It's not like these tiny bits of paper are printed for each unit sold. They're like 10p but are advertising a product that will sell hundreds of units. So you might get 0.1p off, if you're lucky.

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kifflington@reddit

It's not just the bits of paper though. It's the distribution of them, it's the staff time to place them and there's always adverts every time they knock 5p off a pack of teabags.

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WantsToDieBadly@reddit

Tesco did this loads, they;d sneakily inscrease the price by 5p every 2 weeks then go PRICE MATCHED with aldi and it was like 15p more than it costed before

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matomo23@reddit

Can we just ban the phrase “genuine question” please? It’s annoying and also I can’t help but picture that absolute wanker Owen Jones saying it.

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MegaBytesMe@reddit

What's wrong with that? Genuine question

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matomo23@reddit

Pack it in softlad, you’ve got me riled up for the day now.

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Individual-Spare-399@reddit

👆

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badpersian@reddit

The 1 percenters giving you 1% off your shopping. Such grace and charity.

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OkNewspaper6271@reddit

I have not been to ASDA in years, Aldi and Lidl all the way

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Goldman250@reddit

The Asda Rewards app has also gotten significantly worse. They got rid of most of the ways to get money into your cash pot, and massively slashed the amount of money you generate when you do manage to get some.

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CinchCitySixFigure@reddit

I cant even find basic household items - its all aesthetic pulls

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MintImperial2@reddit

I remember going to Morrisons sporting my Transport industry "Key Worker" PPE, expecting a much announced "Key Worker's Discount" during the lockdown....

"No, it's only for NHS key workers" I got told.

Left the entire trolly full at the checkout, walked out, and I've not been inside a Morrisons actual store since.

The local depot is falling apart at the seams, seems to only be run by Brazilians these days, and half the bays are out of action with pallets stacked in front of them.

The investment firm that took it over - clearly don't spend ANY cash on what they've purchased....

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hullk78@reddit

Asda's pricing hurts my eyes when i shop there now, everything's fucking £2.53 and £4.21 and £7.67, just fuck off.

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Strong-Salamanders@reddit

My theory is that it's so you can't remember the exact price of anything, and they can hide price rises, lot easier to spot £2.50 to £2.80 than £2.48 to £2.84

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pajamakitten@reddit

It also makes it a few pennies cheaper than Sainsbury's or Tesco. It hides the fact that ASDA no longer has low prices as its selling point anymore.

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IM_JUST_BIG_BONED@reddit

I’ve had a similar theory. I thinks it’s so you go “it was £2 something” and you don’t say the 71p or whatever was the actual price.

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JMCtheRolo@reddit

I think they're trying to give the illusion of being the 'cheapest it can be' by giving everything a random pence price rather than a multiple of 5p

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

According to the new boss (same as the old boss) he wants the prices to end in 6,7 or 8 because...

"Standing in front of a giant display, he proudly points out the price labels. “All our prices ended with a 5, 9 or a 0; everybody else’s prices end with a 5, 9 or 0. That’s not our system. Our system is 6, 7, 8. Customers think if you end with a 5, 9, 0, you’re rounding up. If you go odds, they think you’re rounding down. It’s a psyche thing,” he said."

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/back-on-the-shop-floor-with-allan-leighton-asdas-man-of-the-people-3hlbr37wv

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H16HP01N7@reddit

Like EVERY business in the country.

They're talking the piss.

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MissingScore777@reddit

Is this just where they've price matched something from a rival?

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Salaried_Zebra@reddit

Honestly, do a pretend online shop been asda, Tesco and any other rival shop. Put the identical items in all three baskets. Most of those items are priced identically, sometimes even down to the promotion.

I (obviously) have no evidence they're a cartel that I could prove it with, but if news broke tomorrow that they were, I would be completely unsurprised.

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Ulysses1978ii@reddit

2p.....cheers. The council tax just went up £200 a month but cheers.

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mist3rdragon@reddit

I want to know what's up with their prices in general recently? So many random prices that aren't near a round number. (Like the 2.48 here) It's like they're trying to make it harder to keep track of your spending while you're walking around.

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Classic_Mammoth_9379@reddit

Current boss hates the round numbers apparently, thinks it makes things look artificially inflated priced if it's all round numbers, giving a price to the nearest penny supposedly makes you realise they aren't rounding and taking those extra pennies from you.

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vinyljunkie1245@reddit

Oh no! Is he one of those 'visionary' bellends who truly believes he is revolutionising his business and that all his ideas are unique and a reinvention of the wheel and are going to transform his industry when in reality they have failed every time they have been used and everyone in the industry groans when they hear them.

One of these 'leaders' who throws out wild ideas everyone knows won't work and when they inevitably fail and cause huge harm to the business. He then blames everyone except himself and quietly leaves the business with a seven or eight figure payoff, moving to another company with a huge salary he isn't worth, while thousands of the staff lose their jobs because of his failings.

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

It's the guy who was Asda CEO in the 90's who has come out of retirement to 'turn it around ' apparently:

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/back-on-the-shop-floor-with-allan-leighton-asdas-man-of-the-people-3hlbr37wv

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Johnnylemo@reddit

The rounding up is something relatively new. I don't remember this happening 10 or 15 years ago.

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

Yeah, I read that too. Sounds bonkers to me!

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tskir@reddit

Well, when a store calculates a true cost of any particular item (+ their 1.5-2% profit margin on top), it will very rarely come up to a round number by chance. So if you see a supermarket with round costs, all this means that they added extra pennies to some products and subtracted a few pennies from others, so that this all evens out for them. In addition, some products are deliberately sold below their actual price as loss leaders.

In contrast, assigning any product its true cost, even if it's not round, seems more fair to me.

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Cloud_Fish@reddit

Use the scan as you go and forget to scan a few things to offset all the price rises.

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Ziazan@reddit

The one near me increased the price of certain multipacks of crisps by 8p and put a green "Asda Price!" logo beside the price tag the other day.

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ProfessionalDiet1442@reddit

My local ASDA's ready-meal section was just a collection of empty shelves at 2pm today, like every Friday afternoon.

If a supermarket would be even remotely interested in making a profit, then maybe make sure precisely that section keeps being restocked throughout the Friday afternoon?

Folks come in after a whole week's work at 6pm and their mind is not particularly set on spending the next 2 hours making their very own oven lasagna, is it?

At Sainsbury's they get this and have a chap come around every hour to restocking it. Profit.

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Sudden_Breakfast_677@reddit

Cost more or print the ba signs that's saving 2pence for some one allegedly

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Dissidant@reddit

Would not be surprised if something happenned with them within the next few years

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bluecheese2040@reddit

This is just asda now...total shit

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MLMSE@reddit

ASDA are most definetely taking the piss with their 'roll back' pricing.

An example - You used to be able to get Yazoo regularly for 75p when it was on offer (and this was the only time i would buy it). Since roll back pricing started it's now always £1.28. That's a 70% increase in price. And they are trying to market it as though roll back pricing is good for customers.

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ImFamousYoghurt@reddit

Aldi has been covered in 1p discounts for as long as I can remember

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Sm0keytrip0d@reddit

Current boss of Asda hates numbers that end in 5 or 0 so we get stupid prices like this.

I work there and I'm apparently the opposite of the boss cause I hate it when numbers don't end in 5 or 0.....so this is great for me to look at 7hrs a day lol.

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MeRedditGood@reddit

Have you tried speaking to your HR department? There should be a conflict resolution policy. Some medium in which you may fight the final boss. The Queen had a Queen's Champion, I imagine the King probably does too. Plenty of folk in CasUK who'd be /u/Sm0keytrip0d's Champion.

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Jamballam@reddit

Imagine how embarrassing it’d be as an employee putting these out, knowing damn well that nobody gives a fuck about 2p in a day and age of pounds over pence.

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cheese0muncher@reddit

'ASDA! Very little help!' New ASDA slogan.

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Yorkshirerows@reddit

If you bought 10,000 packs you would save over 198 quid!!

And you'd have a quarter of a million wipes to boot!

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atsevoN@reddit

Asda don’t care really, the place is a mess now (I work there) and honestly I don’t blame people for not shopping there anymore. Often times prices are wrong cause we don’t have the staff to keep up with the changes and customers take it out on us but it’s not our fault we are just seriously understaffed and can’t keep up, again Asda being greedy but reducing their wage budgets

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dyno_dines@reddit

Roll back to when? last week?

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Evening-Web-3038@reddit

Just on the top item, the same item is £2.50 in Tesco and Sainsburys. So I wonder if it's just some way for them to say "we're cheaper than our rivals".

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atsevoN@reddit

That’s basically it yeah, it’s we we got told as staff when they changed it (they wanted to be cheaper than their competitors, even if it’s 2p), it’s why there are so many weird prices every where now like 2.73 or 7.98 instead of just having them at 2.75 or 8

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No_Atmosphere1852@reddit

PISS! PISS! PISS!

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lee1whufc@reddit

This deal is a steal mate, don't know what are you on about

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Crayon_Casserole@reddit

ASDA is grim.

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Particular_Store8743@reddit

Does a big supermarket genuinely have anything other than profit as their top priority? I doubt it.

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VegaTron1985@reddit

Biscuits, chocolate half covered oaties, went from 77p last week to £1.29... in a fucking week. They used to cost 54p

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tryingtoappearnormal@reddit

Roll back to when? Tuesday!?

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Particular-Back610@reddit

All equity hedge fund lies, they'll manipulate the public to the extreme degree in the name of profits.

Don't underestimate their cunning.

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MarcBolansMini@reddit

It's like the Asda rewards now. It's absolutely shit now. You used to get money for certain star products and 50p per whatever spent. They've got rid of the star products and only give you 25p per whatever spent.

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

25p for every 50 quid you spend or something ridiculous like that. A few months ago they were giving me £1 for every (?) spent, so I got £5 back in a month.

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Artistic_Data9398@reddit

Asda was my go to store religiously for 10+ years but since lockdown its fallen to absolute shambles.

Sainsburys is the goated supermarket.

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SirGeorgeAgdgdgwngo@reddit

Asda is terrible. Their stores are unkempt, bordering dirty, messy and the quality of their own brand food is poor.

Having the cheek to highlight 2p off as some kind of deal is a piss take.

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mc0uk@reddit

Gaslighting

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Round_Engineer8047@reddit

Just enough left from each item for the tupenny fuck I don't give for Asda's marketing tactics.

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fantasticmrsmurf@reddit

I remember thinking the same thing about a 20p pay rise years ago, apparently those pennies add up (obviously this is a joke)

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Additional-Nobody352@reddit

This makes Tesco Clubcard prices look another level.

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ignatiusjreillyXM@reddit

They really should adopt the slogan "every little helps" if that is their game

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Financial-Couple-836@reddit

Their prices are so bad now that I no longer spank myself on the bum and say “that’s Asda price” as I walk out of the shop

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Sir_Shrubbery@reddit

Hey now you could get a whole 1p sweet with that 2p saving

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kifflington@reddit

£6 down to £3.74 isn't bad. 2p off is pretty insulting, though.

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kayzgguod@reddit

captain obvious

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FaithAndABiscuit@reddit

"For some people every penny counts" couldnt be taken more literally for asda

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reversedROBOT@reddit

You should come to asda at owlcotes centre, Pudsey. Driving in and back out, the roads are so bad, it's worse than a country road.

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Huge-Brick-3495@reddit

*cost of greed crisis

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timlnolan@reddit

Perhaps they do it so people take photos and post them online to act as free promotion for Asda

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Peppl@reddit

This has only made it so i wont shop in asda though, so womp womp

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theeternal_420@reddit

Suppose it’s better than Tesco and there clubcard prices

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ThatOneCloneTrooper@reddit

£2 look like an inflated BS corporate price, £1.90 does too but not so much. £1.98 looks like a "realistic" price spat out by a spreadsheet to make it fair. It's to appear cheaper but not really.

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connorkenway198@reddit

The only reason any business does anything is profit

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RevolvingGoose@reddit

I always used to get that frozen deal that was like 4 for £5 or whatever, and now it has been replaced by this rollback nonsense that works out more expensive 🙄

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Organic-Locksmith-45@reddit

Asda has no interest in the cost of living crises.

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Virtual-Guitar-9814@reddit

for them its more a talking point

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ASmallRedSquirrel@reddit

They did this with the 'exceptional by Asda' wee pots of posh yoghurt too. Price went from 69p to 68p and now it's says 'Asda price' next to it. Well obviously it's Asda price, I am in Asda and it's an Asda own brand product, it not like I can buy it somewhere else. But it's 1p cheaper woop de woo...

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