Like many of its retail competitors including Aldi, Asda announced this week it lowered prices on more than 230 items, including fresh produce.
The move includes both branded and own-brand items as the supermarket chain and others look to offset the tremendous burdens of food inflation being felt by British consumers.
This trimming has been going on for more than a year, with Asda officials noting that reductions have hit more than 600 products. Despite this, Asda is still not the least expensive of the chains in terms of average shops, routinely coming in several pounds more than a trip through Aldi and Lidl for the same baskets.
Still, any help is welcome for those loyal customers who prefer or have close proximity to an Asda.
“This is the third price drop campaign we have launched in the last four months to support our customers, and our investment is focused on lowering the prices of popular products that make up the core weekly shop,” Kris Comerford, Asda’s Chief Commercial Officer, said. “We’re also continuing to work closely with our suppliers and whenever there are further opportunities to pass on commodity price savings to customers we will do so.”
Comerford highlighted the “welcome news” of the drop in overall inflation, though that has yet to be fully appreciated in the food sector. Comerford pointed to Asda’s own Income Tracker data, which has shown that “the average UK household is almost £80 per month worse off compared to two years ago” and that disposable incomes have dropped by 60% year over year.
So, Asda is trying to do its part. It has invested more than £44m since the start of the summer to try to lower its prices. Some £9m of that has been spent in key areas, including fruits and vegetables.
It’s recent price drops aren’t all that significant in many cases – similar to Aldi’s reductions – but it is making a difference. A pack of 12x350g Asda Strawberries, for example, saw a nice reduction of 35p down to £2.15p in the recent wave of cuts. And loose Asda Pears are priced even better at £1.80, down from £2.50p. Its own-brand Braeburn apples saw a modest trim of 20p but are now below the £2 mark.
