Asda Shopping cart, with basics.

[Hawkins001]

Not sure how to word or phrase this other than its asdas promoting their basic brands , a trolley full for around £30.77

I figured fellow mumsnetters will debate your perspectives, on the promotion.

And it’s 24p for a tin of the veg soup so not cheaper

I’m just wondering what they expect to make a lasagne out of…lasagne sheets, tinned tomatoes and breaded chicken?

The problem with this is if you're truly on the breadline you need to spend the money on what the kids will actually eat. I have one that would and does devour homemade soup, the other would rather starve

Tinned soup can also be eaten cold or microwaved.homemade soup takes time. Not everyone has a hob or oven (in emergency accommodation etc)

I don't have a problem with it, no fresh stuff as it's a display to highlight and this can be kept out with no issues. The more basic ranges that come out is a good thing, if my local tesco could actually have their value range in stock, that would be good. They're always out of stock of so much.

Not the point I know, but the packaging is awful! I understand they want shoppers to know which are the own brand products but that packaging is so garish and nasty! And I thought green was the Asda brand colour? Signals freshness and health rather than the yellow which reminds me of a beige buffet and consequently unhealthy food.

I do think this is a good way to advertise the affordability of their own brands though, and agree with PP that the lack of fresh food will be purely down to this being a display and not needing to keep swapping in and out fresh products.

I'm not sure how assorted maise snacks are essentials rather than flour or porridge oats or long life milk perhaps. I take other people 's point about the fact the range includes fruit and vegetables but they haven't put them in due to not being long life, but aren't the sausage rolls frozen? It seems strange to have them in the trolley as they'll have defrosted... Many people on very tight budgets don't have lots of freezer space and frozen sausage rolls aren't an efficient use of a small freezer compartment.

It's obviously good to have economical choices clearly available, but I honestly think it's just as cynical as any strategy to maximise share of any market segment and encourage consumers to put things they don't need in their trolley to maximise profit squeezed from anyone and everyone. Which is to say it's no more nor less unscrupulous than any other big company looking to maximise profit in a challenging economy. Morally neutral, just a marketing strategy.

Personally I hate the bright packaging. It reminds me of having to take white packs of kwiksave crisps to school while everyone else had walkers etc.

A Friend of mine would buy like this where she can bulk cook the sausage rolls and nuggets and put in fridge so only using oven every other day. But the electricity to Boil pans of carrots and spuds she cant afford. She will ping some beans in microwave. And that's that.
So yes veg is cheap but not everyone can afford to cook it.
She works FT as a nurse but due to debts left by an ex running up her CCards means shes living like this and food banks.

It looks like a shopping cart of stuff you'd buy for a party, not stuff you'd eat everyday.

I doubt most MN will know the real problem with this because they're all too snobby to shop at Asda. They've always had this range. They've just changed the packaging recently. It used to be white and green. They've also increased the prices along with the rebrand. Their cheap pasta has gone up 10p in our local Asda.

And they don't do the pasata anymore. So instead of 29p you need to spend 70p on the Asda brand stuff. It's not a lot, but across a shop it all adds up.

It's good that they've done this but that's not a full weekly shop realistically. Where's the milk , a bag of apples at the very least some porridge.

Are they advertising it as "you can feed your family for a week for £30" ?

Because that's not how I read the sign. Just that you can get all of that for £30. It's a good start as to what you might need to buy.

That's what I was thinking and meat or fish?

I could perhaps understand them not putting fresh fruit & veg but I would least expect to see some potatoes in there as they are so versatile.

I think this new range looks fantastic for those who have to purchase it. Yes the trolley is full of processed foods but that’s the selection in that price point, all that is a lower priced alternative to branded items. Asda onions are Asda onions they don’t need yellow packaging as the price is the same for everyone unless of course you want them in a mesh bag pack of 3.

I'm assuming you also want the supermarkets to remove Walkers crisps, Kellogs cereal bars and salted cashews?

I think most of the basics range is good but some things like the 20 sausages for £1 are horrible. Ultimately if someone can put food in their belly then it is better than nothing.

I've just looked on the Asda website and they have a wide range of fruit and veg in the range, I've just added a four pack of avocados for £1.25.

Gingerkittykat I think the comments on the fact that the display is disproportionately weighted towards processed beige snack foods and lacking in genuine basics like milk are partly because the range is called "just essentials" and refers to "basics".

It's not about the economy range including crisps, it's just an odd selection of things to push as essential.

It's a marketing strategy to encourage even those on the tightest of budgets to buy things they don't need, by labelling them essential basics and suggesting they're financially responsible choices.

Spinasaurus 's observations on the fact that this rebranding has coincided with removing pasata from the range meaning that a very cheap pasta sauce is no longer available and increasing the cost of the cheapest pasta is insightful. Pasta and pasata would be a classic basic/ essentials meal rather than frozen sausage rolls which need freezer space and an oven.

A lot of fruit and veg is quite cheap anyway (potatoes, carrots, broccoli, bananas) and should preferably be sold without packaging and hence branding.

Plus the range includes fresh unprocessed meat like mince and chicken so you can make a roast and lasagne or similar.

I don't think they're necessarily saying 'this is your weekly shop and all your food for the week' just promoting the new range.

Plus if it's a permanent store display they can't leave fresh food in there, or it could be out of sight at the bottom of the trolley. After all, most supermarkets are laid out so you pass the fruit, veg and fresh meat before you get to the crisps and squash.

Seems like a lot of people are looking to find issues that don't exist or take offence for no reason.

It's so typically Mumsnet to say 'where's the oats' etc ... I volunteer at a Food Bank and we are inundated with porridge oats ... despite polite requests for different food items .. or even just different cereals ... it really is a case of 'let the poor eat porridge'. .
The Asda selection looks like a good value range. If you don't like it, or don't shop at Asda, there's no need to act superior over people who can't, or don't want to, cook from scrstch.

Lots of processed junk food.

Do Asda do value frozen veg in that range?

The faux horror on this thread is a joke. The reality is that some families don’t give a crap about fecking oats or fish/fresh fruit and veg, they’re happy with this kind of trolley of food so stop with the middle class, pretentious nonsense.

@Ragwort What do you mean? Oats aren’t just for poor people. People give oats to the food bank because they love oats and give them to their own families. I worked at a company that made breakfast in the canteen - it was porridge every day, most of the adults absolutely loved it! I ate oats every weekday for 7 years! I guess if you are so broke you cannot afford to use the hob make the oats into porridge then oats are no good - is that your point?

If people are on the breadline and unable to afford putting the fridge or the hob on, I’d suggest two massive bottles of squash in that trolley is a luxury and better to drink water and buy something with a nutritional value above zero.

Also if you can’t afford to put the oven on, what the hell are you going to make with lasagne sheets? That’s a weird choice. What about a loaf of bread and some jam?