It’s undeniably impressive. Within days of spotting a trending story piquing the interest of its demographic – be it brave Kate Middleton or Glasgow’s infamous Willy’s Chocolate Experience – Chann’el 5 will be airing an hour-long documentary about it.
And so, with the news that Asda is cutting almost 500 head office jobs just weeks from Christmas, came the latest of its rapid-turnaround deep-dives: Asda: What’s Gone Wrong? (13 November, 8pm).
“Asda’s current situation is not a good one,” explained food consultant Amelia Rope, putting it mildly. Splitting from Walmart in 2021, the supermarket is now losing market share to the discounters; is no longer the best value of the big four; and remains “rudderless” having been without a CEO for three years.
That’s a big problem. “People are looking for the boss, the CEO, to provide direction,” said The Grocer’s Adam Leyland. “And they haven’t had it.” Can bringing in ‘retail legend’ Stuart Rose as interim leader make a difference?
This solid analysis answering the question posed by the programme’s title sadly came bunched at the bookends of the hour duration. The middle 40 minutes – which included a store-bought versus takeaway pizza taste test and nostalgia-fest of Asda’s bum-tapping ad campaign – could just as easily have come from a show called Asda: Ain’t it Great?
Hopefully we’ll see that content rehashed in a show soon covering the supermarket’s miraculous turnaround.
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