what has happened to Asda?

[KnottedTwine]

Our nearest big supermarket is an Asda, I have shopped there for most of my shopping for at least 10 years, probably more like 15. Over the last year to 18 months it's gone rapidly downhill. Although the fruit/veg sections are usually pretty full, there are large gaps in many of the ambient shelves. Random stuff like salted rice cakes I haven't seen in weeks. They seem to have people working filling the shelves during the day rather than in the evenings like they did previously. Cleanliness standards in the shop has slipped. They have started using the most awful muzak instead of artists/songs you'd recognise.

People love to moan about Brexit but none of the other local-ish stores seem to be having these issues. Yes there is an Aldi fairly close by which I'm sure has poached some of the custom but it can't be the full explanation - is this just our local store which has a crap manager, or a more general issue?

Did I read that Asda is in financial difficulty? The only stores I’ve ever been in ( very rarely) have been awful.

They were taken over weren’t they? And now they’re in financial difficulty? Not sure if they’re linked to each other or coincidence but most people are saying their Asda is shit now.

The store nearest me is fine inside. Bright and modern, no burned out cars in the car park or anti-social behaviour in the evenings. Staff are nice enough, many of them are students/kids my own kids were at school with. It does seem though that they are struggling with the very basics of running a store - the logitstics of keeping the shelves filled. I knew Walmart had sold the business, hadn't read that the company as a whole was experiencing financial difficulties but it doesn't surprise me. If our local store closes the land will be sold for housing as it's in a very prime site.

I always thought if one supermarket was going to ‘go bust’ it would be Tesco (based on the ones I’ve been in) but I think I’d bet on Asda now!

The thing with loads of staff filling the shelves in the daytime seems to be every supermarket tbh. It drives me mad.

Our neatest Asda is 20 miles away but we used to go every so often as they stocked stuff we couldn't get locally. It was always fairly cheap and well stiocked.
It is now a complete dump - not very clean and very poorly stocked with gaping spaces in a lot of common items. When we get to the till it isn't particularly cheap either. We won't be going back.

Huge debts and "rudderless" management, according to this article I was reading the other day:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/22/asda-pays-the-price-for-big-debt-and-turmoil-in-the-boardroom

They were purchased by a pair of brothers who had a history in asset stripping, not running a functioning business. They've essentially done that to Asda but also fallen out and were seeming to run it into the ground to spite each other.

Allegedly change is afoot and the grown ups are apparently taking charge again and the squabbling brothers (one who had already stepped back and one forced to just this late summer) are being ousted. They've a long way to go if they're going to get things running smoothly however because they've really cut it down to the bone and staff moral is non existent before you even look at produce and customers.

Agree.

Local ASDA has minimised till staff and have two harassed soles on their feet constantly helping people at the self scans. No one on the shop floor to help you find goods. Shelf packing during the day often blocking ailes.

Our other options within 2 miles are:

Aldi - great, but limited choice of items compared with Asda
Tesco - one of the much smaller stores
Waitrose - lovely, but expensive.
Saisburys/Co-Op - the little "local" stores which are tiny but good for emergencies.

I'd have to travel further to get to a big Sainsbury's, Morrison's or Lidl.

Asda used to be the one stop shop which had everything you needed. I never used to say things like "i'll get you biscuits or cereal if they have any" - it was always a given that the shelves would be stocked. And agree, they abandoned their cheapest price promise a few years ago and replaced with their reward card thing. I am not on a super strict budget and not checking prices on everything, but one of the things I do buy regularly is 500ml pots of own brand fat free natural yoghurt (for making overnight oats). Tesco's own brand is 35p, Lidl/Aldi is 35p, Asda was 35p until this week when they whacked it up to 55p, which is a huge % increase.

Maybe things will improve now that they have a new chief exec. I don't think any shoppers are particularly loyal though and will vote with their feet if things don't improve.

I was in my local one yesterday. Near the front doors is the customer service counter, and kiosk with two tills for people buying newspapers and fags etc. There was one member of staff, and she was run ragged because she was the only assistant serving the three tills. She said she had been told she would be working on her own, and it was really difficult to do because sometimes a customer service query could take a while to sort out, and there was nobody else to serve the waiting customers while she was doing that. She looked mightily pissed off.

I went to my local one this week. I maybe go once every six months or so because I tend to use other stores and my local one is about 40 minutes away. It was pretty much like you said OP. Lots of gaps on the shelf. Hardly any tills open and queues for the ones that were open had about 6-8 people in them so it would have taken ages (I used self serve which was a pain as I had heavy crates of drinks). It just didn't look like a professional store like somewhere like my local Sainsbury's does.

I don't mind the shelf stacking in the day time as I feel sorry for people who need to do late shift or overnight shift when the role doesn't necessarily need it but I do think they should get the cages out the way when people want to a particular shelf.

Never liked Asda. Never rated the own brand stuff and I find their variety of general goods to be somewhat lacking. I still think Sainsbury's is the best for variety, probably Waitrose for quality. Aldi for the basics.

Four soles or two souls? 😂

The asda I go to is good!

I've always hated Asda

I work at Asda, cleanliness is down hill because they got rid of 90% of the cleaners and implemented a "clean as you go policy for staff" that accompanied with a serious lack of staff anyway has resulted in it being a mess, staff don't have time to stop the job they're currently doing to clean up a dropped item right away. Usually they just pass the message on that's somethings been spilled over the head set and no one cleans it up it's a vicious cycle

Ours is our nearest supermarket but I don't use it as its awful and half empty, except if I need the odd thing like using a corner shop. I get most of my grocery online from Ocado and Tesco, Ocado at the moment as I have a free delivery pass. Top up shops are in Waitrose and M&S

I do online orders through Asda and definitely get more substitutes or not available items. What they substitute with is also annoying, say Asdas own mozzarella isn’t available you don’t get the branded one but, instead, salad cheese. Probably because they won’t make you pay more than the item you ordered.
however, use buy dates are always good and their refund process is great if any issues.
I mainly use them because they have good slot availability, even at short notice.
My only large store nearby is a Tesco Extra which I hate. Because it’s the only one it’s always packed stupid.
I used to order from Sainsbury’s and Morrisons and both kept sending items with very short shelf lifes so stopped.

I ended up talking to the veg man in Asda the other day. There were a lot of empty spots in the veg section, he was saying that they had no potatoes the week before except for tiny new potatoes. He said it's because of the weather this summer wasn't good where our potatoes had come from and they were rotten.
Tesco was woefully short of fruit the following day.

Have another look at Waitrose. It’s not as expensive as you might think.

Interesting to read this, I had no idea about the owners.

Our local ASDA is brilliant, friendly staff, excellent selection you can't get in Aldi, but cheaper than Tesco. Fingers crossed they start to improve elsewhere if the shareholders/board can grip these 2.

Our Asda is dire. Empty shelves. Prices missing from shelves. Broken trollie. No staff.
5 or so years ago I'd buy the odd item from thier clothing section but wow...the quality although never great is now absolute abysmal. Everything feels thin and super synthetic..absolute the shittest shit I've ever seen.

I work at another supermarket and we don’t have cleaners during the day - it’s always been our policy for staff to just clean as things get spilled or if a customer drops something. We also wipe down when restocking etc. I’m surprised at what you are saying and more surprised that Asda used to have cleaners for this in the daytime.
I also don’t understand everyone saying there is no staff around to help customers find things yet also saying the aisles are full of people restocking in the daytime? Why can’t they help?!
I don’t doubt the owners are running it down but I have never had good staff experience from the very few times I have been in an Asda and I suspect that is now more apparent, it was just more accepted when it was the cheapest and it was well stocked.