Asda commits to making its cheapest food ranges more widely available

Asda has promised to make its cheapest food ranges more widely available following comments made by anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe.

Ms Monroe raised concerns that low-income shoppers were facing price increases because they could no longer get hold of them.

Asda said it has “taken on board” her comments it will stock its full Smart Price and Farm Stores ranges in all 581 food stores and online to “provide customers on a budget with more value choices.”

Asda currently stocks 150 Smart Price and Farm Stores products in 300 stores and will introduce all 200 products in these value ranges to all food stores by 1^st March.

The supermarket chain says it has “already taken steps to make its value ranges more accessible by increasing the number of products available online.”

Asda has added 100 Smart Price and Farm Stores products to its website this week, increasing the total online range to 187 products, and this will rise to 200 by the end of February.

Meg Farren, Asda’s Chief Customer Officer, said: “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.”

Well, that went rather well. pic.twitter.com/kfI7fZvXSZ

— Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) February 7, 2022

The UK is facing an acute cost-of-living crisis driven by rocketing energy costs and inflation peaking at a near 30 year high.

Ms Monroe, an activist and blogger on how to eat on a budget, said: “Last year the Smart Price pasta in my local Asda was 29p for 500g.”

“Today, it is unavailable, so the cheapest bag is 70p; a 141% price rise for the same product in more colourful packaging.”

“A few years ago, there were more than 400 products in the Smart Price range; today there are 87, and counting down.

Deeside based supermarket chain Iceland has pledged to freeze the price of all its £1 Iceland frozen lines until the end of the year to help shoppers cope with rising inflation costs.

Managing Director of Iceland, Richard Walker said the company operates “in some of the most deprived communities in the country” and staff are already seeing customers “struggling to make ends meet.”