If we ignore the customers maybe they'll stop bugging us

I’ve invented a new game to play in the car with my four year old daughter. It’s educational and it keeps her amused. It’s a variant of the Word Association played on psychiatrists couches all over the world and it goes something like this.

Me: Bus
Matilda: Driver
Me: Golf
Matilda: Cricket
Me: Bug
Matilda: Spider
Me: Car
Matilda: Garage
Me: Asda
Matilda: Shit

Word Association is great for kids because it stimulates their imaginations, increases their vocabularies and, in the case of my four year old daughter, allows them to get away with saying a rude word. This in turn is beneficial for me because, what makes the game enjoyable for my daughter keeps her wanting to play it; a sort of fun learning, which I can control the length of simply by saying the word ‘Asda’, the only real loser here.

But it really is Asda’s fault.

OK, the timing was probably unfortunate. I had toothache, I was coming to the end of a so far fruitless quest to find a Turkey Crown for Sunday Roast. I had the rest of the family seated around the table like the Bellingham’s fictional Bisto family, salivating at their collective mouths at the thought of Turkey juices mingling with roast potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding, which is compulsory with everything in my household.

I had crossed off Waitrose (only frozen, no good for Sunday Roast), been disappointed at Marks & Spencer (sold out), left high and dry at Sainsbury (only leg joints, Vicky wanted crown) and Asda was the next stop on the way to Tesco, the last resort; and I should point out here that this pecking order of supermarkets is merely geographical, based on their proximity to my house, and limited by my tolerance for spending Sunday driving round in circles.

Once safely parked and inside I spotted a stack of Christmas Trees priced at only £23, and decided to purchase a said tree along with the rest of the shopping. And when I got to the checkout it registered as £45.

I patiently explained to the man at the till that the tree was priced at £23. Then I led the manager to the stack of Christmas trees priced at £23.

And here is where we get to the problem that I have with Asda.

‘Incorrectly priced’ he said deadpan, ‘should be £45’

Why are they priced at £23? I asked. Were correctly priced this morning, sign must have gone missing, I was told. I looked at my watch which read 11.45am, which meant the store had been open to the public for the last 45 minutes. And I hadn’t seen a single customer other than myself with a tree.

So we argued back and forth for a while, me getting ever more agitated and the manager looking increasingly bored and distracted but not budging at all.

No, I couldn’t have it for £23. No, there was nothing he could do. Yes, I could have the number for head office.

I didn’t bother phoning. It’s not the first time this has happened.

So all the money spent on projecting me images of happy shoppers slapping their back pockets isn’t going to make me feel any less like I’ve been ripped off. Even though technically, and as the manager himself so rightly pointed out, I haven’t.

I’m sure we all know that supermarkets get their prices wrong. In fact, it’s pretty common in my experience.

And when it’s in their favour and I don’t notice they get away with it. So when they get it wrong and I spot it, then I expect the advertised price to be honoured.

It’s happened in Sainsbury, Waitrose, Tesco and Asda and I’m sure it would happen in Morrisons and Lidl and all the others if I went there for my shopping.

But Asda is the only store that has refused to honour the advertised price. And like I’ve said, it’s not the first time.

In any of the other supermarkets I have been in there hasn’t even been a discussion. They’ve honoured the incorrect price in my favour with a murmured acceptance that the customer is king.

But not in Asda.

So, now seething, my daughter and I make our way back to my car empty handed, and on the way to Sainsbury to pick up a turkey leg, we invent our very own word association game, and Matilda listens patiently while I explain the rules.

And yes, Asda, you do stock Turkey Crown; and pretty good it looked too.







Russell Lawley Gibbs

Enigma Marketing Services



01628 581 058

07514 818 645

Please note that my mobile number has changed.



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