Asda has started advertising a raft of £1 deals. How are they being received? We are focusing on price points and it’s going really well. We have turned the centre aisle over to the round-pound offers and have cut down on bogofs. It’s going fantastically well, all the aisle ends are stocked with round-pound deals. The customers love it. 

What else is selling well at the moment? We have just launched our autumn range of George, which looks absolutely fantastic – it is selling really well. We are also two weeks into our baby event, and sales have gone up by 38%, so we are really pleased with that. 

How is the Asda Price Guarantee performing? We are having a big push on educating our shoppers in how it works. For the past week we have had a colleague placed by the exit with a laptop who explains how it works. You can see the advert, but having someone explain how it works in person has made a huge difference – we have seen an uptake of 67% since we started demonstrating it. 

Sainsbury’s has launched its own version of the Price Guarantee. What do you think? I haven’t seen it in action, but I would question whether it will be sustainable. Can it be accurate? We make daily changes to thousands of prices. In theory it sounds good, but it’s only on trial at the moment, so we will see how it performs. 

Our mystery shopper mentioned how friendly and helpful the staff were. I’m not surprised by that. We have a great team here, friendly and experienced. We always do well in our internal mystery shopping scores. One of our team has just been recognised for working at the store for 35 years. 

How are staff rewarded after working at Asda for that long? After 25 years an employee gets invited to a full day of celebration. They get picked up in a limo, go to head office for a corporate event and a meal with the CEO and other directors, they get flowers, a plaque, a cash gift and an additional week’s holiday. It’s a great place to work! 

How long have you worked for Asda? Sixteen years since last Friday. I have had some fantastic opportunities at Asda – it is such a people focused company. It even paid for me to go to university part time when I worked at Asda House. Now I am here at this store, which is a store of learning. I am passionate about development, so it’s a great place for me. I can take the next generation through and give them the opportunities I had. The world is your oyster at Asda. 

Topics