Asda - WTF is going on?

[MuggedByReality]

I went into a big out of town Asda store in the East Midlands this afternoon. The place was a chaotic shambles, it looked like some sort of organisational meltdown had happened. Empty wooden pallets scattered around. Empty shelves all over the store. Piles of boxes of stock which should have been on said shelves dumped & piled up in aisles. Massive queues at the customer service desk. Very few staff visible anywhere. I gave up & went to the nearby Sainsbury’s instead which was completely fine.

Is Asda struggling? Has anyone else noticed major problems recently or was this just one store having a bad day?

They are on their arses, I have heard

I went into one earlier and the only Easter eggs they had were the white cream egg ones! What’s that about???

Our one (I'm SE London) has definitely gone down hill. Fed up with empty shelves and having to dodge the huge trolleys in every aisle where staff are picking shopping for online shoppers.

I regularly go to Asda for a few bits when DD is in her dancing lesson as there's one 5 minutes from the studio. I haven't noticed any issues with the shop looking untidy or stock levels, but I do agree about the understaffing. There is usually only one person on their own having to manage the kiosk/customer service/online order collection point and its quite annoying if you're waiting to get an online order and get stuck behind someone who is doing a refund at customer service that takes ages.

Poor selection in ours too.
Think the 4 for 10.00 has been popular.

Ours is always very busy and a little chaotic.

When I first moved out of London 20 years ago what I liked about my local Asda was that every single til was open and staffed by cheery ladies of a certain age that reminded me of my nan. Last time I went in there, 90% of the humans had been been replaced by self service tills. So they can do one.

I've been having issues with Asda best before dates for a while. They're just over 5 mins away so I used to pop in regularly and had a delivery pass for a little bit too but too often we would get delivered stuff either on its date, over it or stupidly close (like 4 best of both milk due to go off in 2 days. Who can drink that much milk that quickly!) even in store you often find stuff out of date too, just Friday I had to hand a whole box of cooked meat to a worker cos they were 2 days out of date. A fortnight before there were meals on the 'luxury' meal deal offer that were 4 days out of date still in the fridges. Its every single visit that we find something more or less now and really have to check before purchasing anything.

Just before Christmas we were delivered tallegio cheese 2 months out of date! They've really stopped the checks as it was never this bad before. Less staff I guess.

I have heard that they are in trouble and are selling off some assets, like the petrol stations.

Our nearest two are absolutely fine (one massive, one average, London) but in fairness I never go in on a Saturday afternoon. I'm pretty sure it would be carnage.

Re the Easter Eggs- they've had them in for months- it's now only 6 days till Good Friday. They want to be running their stock down at this stage!

Re the stock/ chaos etc- will it be anything to do with this I wonder?

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-13068601/What-Asda-story-astonishing-rift-Issa-brothers.html

Ours isn’t full of pallets etc but there is so little stock. The other day there was no mince at all in the store which you’d think was a staple, for example. I used to like Asda for the Blue Light discount but I’m sure they’ve quietly reduced that too.

The one on the Isle of Dogs had bed bugs on the clothes I heard.

Our local one has been rubbish for years - poor range (shelves full but only one or two brands of anything to chose from), or whole sections of the store empty. I nipped in yesterday to get some wrapping paper and the shelves were completely stripped bare apart from a few random rolls of unsuitable paper (FIL, whilst young at heart, doesn't need spiderman wrapping for his birthday present!). I managed to track down a store worker who nonchalantly said "oh we don't fill those shelves up, an external company comes in and does it", before wandering off leaving me standing there like a lemon. I could see there were boxes on the top shelf, but apparently no-one could get them down for me 🤷🏼‍♀️ It's experiences like that why we stopped doing the weekly shop there. It wouldn't surprise me if they were in trouble.

My local Asda is fine. No stock issues and plenty of staff. I am in Bury, Greater Manchester.

The current owners bought it by taking on massive debt. They thought they could take it “upmarket” and have more premium products, like hot food and so on. Basically “extract more value” in a similar way they did service stations.

Enter higher interest rates, higher food prices, higher energy prices.

Plus the existing customer base was more concerned with value for money than they realised and resisted by buying less/downgrading on items or just went elsewhere.

I don't usually shop in Asda as it is the other side of town from me, but I went in yesterday and it was fine. I prefer Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys.

I don't think it is just ASDA. I was in a Sainsbury Express yesterday and it was the same.

They've just bought and are currently rebranding our local petrol station and associated shop!

The Asda brothers and their backers aren't getting enough money out of their investment apparently 🙄

Stock is fine for me, although limited lines, but their staffing levels seem to have been halved 🙁

EDIT - I went into one earlier and the only Easter eggs they had were the white cream egg ones! What’s that about???
Not surprised, those things are vile.

Ours is like a warehouse, so full of shelf stacking pallets and online shopping trolley things that it's barely useable as an actual shop anymore. But I assumed this was the way a lot of supermarkets are heading.
I've noticed the amount of choice has been reducing, the milk and meat selection is now tiny. The pharmacy has reduced its hours and is now closed for lunch. The petrol station kiosk has gone and it's now pay at pump only. Again, not sure if this is just the way it's all going.

Our ASDA has gone downhill over the years. I got seriously annoyed by a recent management decision (it was a 'final straw' after several other bad decisions) and have defected to Aldi/Lidl. ASDA must have realised that they annoyed a lot of customers because the 'final straw' decision has been reversed. However, I still do the majority of my shopping at the German discounters.
Once you lose customers, it takes a lot to get them to return.

That’s what my local Tesco often looks like.

They bought all coop's petrol stations just 18 months ago!

Bloody awful place and no cheaper than anywhere else. Our local one doesn't even have checkout screens on the manned tils. Poor buggers are still using the old sticky keys that they had in the '90's.
Where other stores have realised that loud booming music is off putting for customers, Asda is still pumping it out.
Lighting is dismal and dreary and aisles are crammed full of skanky families using it as a day out with their feral kids running riot.

The local one to me is always half empty, they never have any fresh stock!!! I know lots of supermarkets are struggling with fresh produce supply chains but I really notice it in Asda more.