Asda has placed a temporary restriction on purchases in its budget line up Just Essentials.
The supermarket admitted it had struggled to keep up with demand for the range, which launched in May to replace its Smart Price budget offer.
Under the restrictions customers are being limited to a maximum of three of each of the Just Essentials range.
Some experts have also questioned the impact on Asda’s margins from customers switching from mid tier to budget price items.
Just Essentials has had a rollercoaster life in its short time on the shelves since The Grocer revealed in March that suppliers had been given just four weeks to come up with a major price repositioning across a 300-product range of food and non food items.
Since then the supermarket has also strongly defended the range’s bright yellow packaging amid allegations in some quarters that it “stigmatises” hard up shoppers.
However, last month Asda said sales of the range were growing at 19% ahead of the market, as shoppers sought to combat the impact of food inflation and there have been widespread reports of lack of availability on the shelves in store and online.
An Asda spokesman said the restrictions were temporary measures, which it hoped to lift soon.
“Just Essentials is proving very popular with customers and we are working hard to improve availability across the range,” he said.
”To ensure as many customers as possible can buy these products, we are temporarily limiting purchases to a maximum of three of each product for a short period of time. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.”
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