ASDA - ruddy good value?

[maser_spyder]

Right, let start this with making it very clear I'm not an ASDA shopper. In fact, I'm not much of a shopper at all, I let Mrs Maser buy food, otherwise we'd end up with four pizzas and some tuna steaks for the week, 'cos that's my favourite.

BUT, I was going past, and desperately needed some screenwash for the truck, so stopped on the off-chance.

Turns out, it's on offer right now, £1 for 2.5L of the stuff! So I bought 4 (front, rear, and some spare is easily 10L).

Next to the screen wash was some other stuff I was going to get from screwfix, a handful of cheap spanners to go in my emergency truck toolbox, pliers, duct tape, WD40, etc. The spanners were about £1.25 for a set of 6, pliers the same price, and so on. It's all Draper branded kit (although the cheapy stuff), looks OK for cheap tools, and they'll likely never be used.

Then when I was leaving, chuffed to bits with my impromptu bargains, I walked past the electronics section where they had a promo stand with Samsung digital cameras. 10.2MP very small compact camera, was £99, then £80, then £70, now only £62.

I'm off skiing next week and I only have a digital SLR, which is a bit big to put in a pocket for point and click, so a cheapy compact is ideal. Turns out, the promotional price was wrong, they were actually only £57. That included a 2Gb memory card.

I came home absolutely chuffed to bits with my 'bargains', put away my new tools in the tool box, filled up the screenwash, and had a play with my new camera.

Then it struck me. I'm a total victim of retail cleverness! What a doughnut.

I went in to a shop to buy what I though was going to be less than £5 worth of screenwash, and ended up spending the best part of £80!

Suffice to say, I'm now a little confused. Have I been 'had' by the giant of Wal-Mart? Or have I come off better out of this?



It's Saturday, it's midnight, I may be having a 'tired and emotional' moment.

[mattley]

You've done well by taking advantage of all their loss leaders without being suckered into actually doing general shopping there.

[robinhood21]

Have you been had? Certainly not. I've seen women spend that and more, with little or nothing left to show by the end of the week. You Sir, have items that should last a good few years!

[OnTheOverrun]

You can get lots of really good things in supermarkets these days. Except food of course.

[maser_spyder]

That's exactly what I thought. The camera will likely last for years, it's hardly going to go 'out of date', and I'm never likely to be printing A0 prints from it.

I forgot to mention, all cameras sold in ASDA come with 50 free digital prints at the moment, so I also picked up my voucher for the prints, redeemable within 6 months.

I have no idea how much 50 6x4 prints would normally cost, but 'free' seemed pretty cheap to me!

We get the majority of our weekly food shop from a local organic veg supplier, everything sourced within 50 miles of the farm. I would thoroughly recommend this to anybody. Proper muddy root veg, excellent fruit in the summer, and some really wild and wonderful vegetables throughout the year. I've lost count of the times we've had to google a particular veg to find out how to cook it, we get some really odd stuff!

I feel better about it now, looks like I picked up everything they make a loss on (apart from the tools, which were just very cheap).

[C8PPO]

You should have bought double of everything you did - then you'd have saved twice as much

[Comacchio]

I work in this hellhole. Profit is made on groceries mainly. Groceries and provisions. We make a loss on a lot of alcohol, purely to bring punters into the store!

-Allan

[maser_spyder]

C8PPO said:

You should have bought double of everything you did - then you'd have saved twice as much

I read a wonderful Clement Freud piece on a similar principle!

Clement_Freud said:

We have no shed at the bottom of our garden; in fact our garden is so small that it only just has a bottom, where there are eleven daffodil bulbs (what is called a gardener's dozen) which my wife is cultivating for some blue and grey vases she bought in the sales.

The vases were a bargain, a 25s. line reduced to 12s. 6d.; she bought one last January, and when she came out of the shop there was a 40s. parking ticket stuck on the windscreen of her car. So she went back and bought two more vases and worked out that we were only 2s. 6d. down on the entire deal.

Thanks to a number of such transactions, we are now very rich.]

Edited by maser_spyder on Sunday 17th January 00:42

[Mobile Chicane]

Asda is brilliant for certain things.

The aforementioned screenwash is cheaper than anywhere else, also good quality wooden coathangers are 2 for £1 at Asda (they're 6.95 each at John Lewis).

However certain items (Dorset Cereals 'posh' muesli springs to mind) are actually more expensive at Asda than at Waitrose.

I shop at both, selectively. Also if I can't be bothered to make any kind of effort with my appearance, Asda it is.

[V8A*ndy]

ASDA often have some top deals. Today I made off with

Alloy wheel cleaner, two for £2

Kent microfibre pack £3

Black and Decker cordless drill/driver £15

and the screenwash for a £1

[randomman]

Remind's me of a joke:

It was Frank's first day at a massive department store (in America). He was told not to worry about targets just to get to know the place. At the end of the day his manager came up to him and said
"Frank, you've racked up over $100,000 of sales, thats amazing how did you do it?"

"Well I was showing this guy the fishing rods when he said he didn't have a gear bag, so we chose a bag and I suggested that the best fish are always caught in a boat, so we chose a boat and I pointed out that he will need a trailer, so we chose a trailer and I told him that his old car wouldn't be up to the task so I sold him one of those luxery 4x4 ones."

The boss, amazed by this, replies
"You're telling me a guy came in for a fishing rod and you sold him a boat and a car!"
Frank replies
"No, he came in for some tampons and I said 'your weekend's f*cked, you might as well go fishing'"

[cheddar]

randomman said:

Remind's me of a joke:

It was Frank's first day at a massive department store (in America). He was told not to worry about targets just to get to know the place. At the end of the day his manager came up to him and said
"Frank, you've racked up over $100,000 of sales, thats amazing how did you do it?"

"Well I was showing this guy the fishing rods when he said he didn't have a gear bag, so we chose a bag and I suggested that the best fish are always caught in a boat, so we chose a boat and I pointed out that he will need a trailer, so we chose a trailer and I told him that his old car wouldn't be up to the task so I sold him one of those luxery 4x4 ones."

The boss, amazed by this, replies
"You're telling me a guy came in for a fishing rod and you sold him a boat and a car!"
Frank replies
"No, he came in for some tampons and I said 'your weekend's f*cked, you might as well go fishing'"

2/10

[The jiffle king]

Comacchio said:

I work in this hellhole. Profit is made on groceries mainly. Groceries and provisions. We make a loss on a lot of alcohol, purely to bring punters into the store!

-Allan

Asda do not make a loss on alcohol..... they make a minor loss on a few lines occasionally when they are on a particular offer which they fund and not the supplier. Gross margin is high on alcohol, net margin may be reduced to 0 on a few occasions, but most is funded by the supplier in that case

[Jasandjules]

It's always worth checking places out for a bargain.

Even if that's all you buy from the store, it can be worth it.

[rocksteadyeddie]

The biggest problem is not the prices, but the fact that it is rammed with pikeys.

[westhamtim]

rocksteadyeddie said:

The biggest problem is not the prices, but the fact that it is rammed with pikeys.

I occasionally find myself in Asda on the Isle of Dogs. The above could not be more true.

[sday12]

rocksteadyeddie said:

The biggest problem is not the prices, but the fact that it is rammed with pikeys.

I often go to Asda for this exact reason, if your feeling down, not happy with yourself, go to ASDA, the resultant swarms of fktards will make you realise how valuable your lot really is.

[Simpo Two]

rocksteadyeddie said:

The biggest problem is not the prices, but the fact that it is rammed with pikeys.

I guess that and selling things the cheapest go hand in hand. On the other hand Waitrose is lightly populated with frightfully nice types and the parking spaces are big enough for 4x4s, but you pay for it.

Morrisons is a good compromise I think.

BTW aren't you supposed to dilute screenwash? Cheaper still, use water with a dash of Fairy Liquid and a splosh of meths.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

sday12 said:

rocksteadyeddie said:

The biggest problem is not the prices, but the fact that it is rammed with pikeys.

I often go to Asda for this exact reason, if your feeling down, not happy with yourself, go to ASDA, the resultant swarms of fktards will make you realise how valuable your lot really is.

I am not a fan of supermarket / newspaper / car / whatever snobbery, as every place has its own merits and downfalls, depending on staff, area and situation.

However, the Asda in Lower Earley is pretty much spot on in that description. Last time I had to go in there as it was the only store I was passing on my way home, I actually heard someone arguing with the store manager that their 5p off coupon did not work, because it had expired two months ago. The massive behmouth of a woman was arguing with the store manager that he should honour it anyway, and she was doing this VERY loudly.

She then threatened never to shoop there again, at which point I had finished paying for my stuff and was leaving so didn't see the end of it, howeever judging by the size of her, it probably was a valid threat as she alone possibly contributes to 20% of their monthly turnover...

[lost in espace]

I bought some Tesco screenwash its good for temps down to -2. So fook all use then over the last few weeks.