ASDA 2

Tracy Manning planned to cook fish fingers, chips and baked beans for her granddaughter's lunch but when she opened the tin of beans she found it was full of mould. Mrs Manning had bought the Asda Smart Price beans at Asda in Spondon the week previously. She said there was no sign that the tin had a hole in it, which would have allowed air to get inside and cause the mould. The best-before date on the tin, which cost 13p, showed that the beans were still fit for consumption. Mrs Manning said, "It was so disgusting that I immediately threw away the other unopened tins I had bought at the same time, because I couldn't trust that they wouldn't be mouldy as well. You don't expect things like this. It makes me not trust them now." Asda offered to replace the product or give a refund but Mrs Manning was not satisfied and said, "It's not good enough, I would have expected them to take it more seriously and to offer some sort of compensation." Ah, the magic word.... compensation.

Asda is to celebrate its 40th birthday by giving staff a day off ... without pay. Although the company made record profits of £670million in 2004, won't pay out £5.4million to make it a paid day off for the 140,000 staff. The supermarket, which is owned by American giant Wal-Mart, told its workers in an internal memo, "We are launching 'It's My Day' to coincide with Asda's 40th birthday as a way of reward. This will allow colleagues to decide which is the most important event in their year that they would like to take a day off for. The scheme is limited to one day per holiday year per colleague. It could be any day off their rota that they request, which could include the longest day of their rota. However, the time off is unpaid so financially it does not carry costs for the store." Chief executive Andy Bond was forced to reinstate a Christmas staff discount after threatening to scrap a 20% discount on toys, DVDs and alcohol saying it had to "protect profits". An Asda spokeswoman said, "This is a new initiative open to all colleagues." (Source: Sunday Mirror)

Asda in Spondon is to undergo a major revamp with the biggest change being a new, circular delicatessen counter. Ham, cheese, Indian food, Chinese food, cooked chickens and fish will be combined in a "grand" deli-counter. There will also be new refrigerators in the provision and produce areas and the shelving in parts of the store will also undergo a revamp. Non-food sections such as George clothing, the photography centre and the pharmacy will be unchanged. Other changes will see three new basket-only checkouts added to the 44 existing tills and the toilets will be redecorated. Car parking for the disabled is also being improved. Gareth Dominey, store liaison manager, said, "We've introduced a disabled barrier system which means only disabled people will be able to park there. People register with us and a camera reads their numberplate, recognises them as disabled and opens the barrier."

Friends of the Earth has conducted a survey of local authorities and 80% of those questioned said they were concerned about the practice and most felt powerless to prevent it. 75% said they would like new legislation to deal with the problem. Colin Peters, the head of development control for Eastleigh council, said, "Supermarkets can be very aggressive. You get lawyers and consultants with complex studies showing the alterations won't have any impact. We then either have to spend thousands of pounds ourselves on experts or struggle to argue with it." Despite pressure from local authorities and campaign groups, the government has so far failed to act on this problem.

Nonetheless, Asda appears to be concerned; in May 2004, Tony DeNunzio criticised the UK's 'increasingly restrictive planning regime' and said his stores made a 'tremendous contribution ... to local communities, providing the funds to transform difficult sites and offering a tremendous boost to town and district centres'. However, according to Friends of the Earth, ' Asda claims that it will create new jobs, but does not say how many other jobs in local communities may be lost as a result of its new superstores opening, or how many may be simply replacing existing retail jobs. Trends in retail employment show growth in superstores has led to an overall reduction in the number of retail jobs, and a trend from full- to part-time employment.'

In October 2003 Friends of the Earth put forward a Planning Bill aiming to close this loophole. Despite receiving cross-party support, the bill was thrown out. However, the situation is slowly changing: according to FoE, "Following a Friends of the Earth campaign, the Government has committed to changing the legislation. Asda seem determined to go ahead before new rules come into force, avoiding the need for local scrutiny. We offer Britain's best value weekly shop with prices on average 10% lower than our main competitors."

Asda is a main player in the drive for cheapness, and just after the merger then Chief Executive, Allan Leighton, claimed that Asda would bring down prices to American levels within 18 months. To understand the possible consequences of this take a look at Wal-Mart. Paul Mason, Asda’s chief operating officer, said, "This record level of investment by Wal-Mart in the UK is in line with our strategy of long-term market-share growth and good news for British customers who know that when Wal-Mart comes to town, prices come down and stay down."

Since the merger, Asda has set off a price war in the UK by initiating the aggressive 'price-rollback' programme. In 1999 Asda claimed to have ‘rolled back’ the prices on 4000 products. In 2000 this was raised to 6000 and Wal-Mart said £105.5m had been ‘invested’ in Asda's price reductions during the six months to the end of July 2001. According to the Asda website: 'Since joining the Wal-Mart family in 1999 our sales growth has risen dramatically, and we have cut our prices by around £0.5 billion in total.' Despite these campaign claims we still can find cheaper food in non-supermarket shops! This is especially true of fruit and veg, most cheap food in supermarkets is in the form of 9p cans of beans and highly processed sliced bread. Most things that are good for you are still expensive.

In any case, Asda’s ‘roll back’ price reductions are not always what they seem. In September 2001, Asda was fined £9000 for misleading customers over a discount promotion. They had done this by making price comparisons with figures over six months old. Prosecutor Miles Bennett argued that sometimes the prices in the roll back promotion never actually got any lower: 'The roll back now even lower price for Asda crisps was £1.15 but the crisps had been available for £1.15 for the last eight months.' As a result of this case, the supermarket claims to have changed its pricing policy. The so-called cheap food that Asda peddles with its misleading advertising has wide consequences: is it is subsidised by the taxpayer; it encourages cheap exploitative labour; intensive agriculture, environmental destruction, and animal and human diseases.

Asda and Wal-Mart are big enthusiasts for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). RFID tags use tiny computer chips smaller than grains of sand to track items. Each chip has a unique identification number that can be picked up by a remote reader device, allowing it to be recognised up to 30 feet away. The chips are supposed to track products as far as the checkout, not people. However, it is clear that supermarkets also like to get profiles of their regular customers, what they buy and what they are likely to buy, and many privacy campaigners are worried that RFID technology will be abused.

You could be telling anyone who has the right kind of scanning device, from burglars to the government, what you have bought, where from, how much it cost, and anything else that might be added to an item's database entry, such as who bought it. In this scenario, individuals could be identified by what they wear. On top of which, retailers could monitor your behaviour in relation to their goods. Did you try on a garment? How long did you hold that product? Are you trying to steal? Now does that sound a bit like surveillance? Now would it worry you if this technology were already being used at several of your favourite stores?

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