Asda has reacted to a consumer backlash and confirmed it will stock all of its cheaper ‘Smart Price’ and ‘Farm Stores’ ranges online and in every one of its 581 stores to provide customers on a budget with cheaper choices.
This comes following complaints from anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe that the price of basic food staples like rice and pasta were increasing faster than less essential items, in part because some supermarkets had withdrawn their ‘value’ ranges.
Monroe had cited examples from her local Asda store where the price of the cheapest bag of pasta had risen to 70p from 29p a year ago.
Asda has 150 smart price and farm stores products in 300 stores, it said, but will expand this to 200 value range products in all stores by 1 March.
“We want to help our customers’ budgets stretch further and have taken on board the comments about the availability of our Smart Price range made by Jack Monroe.
“We are taking steps to put our full Smart Price and Farm Stores ranges in-store and online to make these products as accessible as possible,” said Meg Farren, Asda’s chief customer officer.
The supermarket said it added 100 Smart Price and Farm Stores products to its website this week, taking the total to 187.
This announcement is just a couple of days after Tesco’s chair warned that the worst of rising food prices is “yet to come” (read more) with a potential 5% surge in spring.
Rising inflation and the cost of living crisis, including energy bill rises and national insurance hikes are hitting low-income households the hardest.