Walmart's Asda Fires Final Shot in Supermarket Grocery Price Wars

LEEDS, United Kingdom, April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today Asda, Walmart's UK retail operation will fire the final shot in the supermarket price wars with a worldwide first that harnesses the power of the internet to guarantee the lowest price to its shoppers.

The 'Asda Price Guarantee' launched on Wednesday at 7.00am UK-time is a cast-iron promise to shoppers that it cannot, and will not, be beaten on price.  If shoppers can purchase a basket of eight or more comparable products cheaper elsewhere, the retailer will give them the difference, plus a penny more for good measure.

The launch of the Asda Price Guarantee heralds the official end of the grocery price war between all the major supermarkets, and covers over 13,000 branded and own brand products, and items on promotion.  

Activating the APG is a simple three-step process.

• Shop – Customers do their regular shop at Asda, remembering to keep the receipt;
• Check – After 9am the next day shoppers go to www.asda.com/priceguarantee to enter their receipt details to see how much their grocery shop would have cost at the other supermarkets;
• Smile - knowing they have shopped at Britain's lowest priced supermarket. In the small number of instances they'd have paid less elsewhere, then Asda will give them a printable voucher for the difference, plus one penny that can be redeemed against their next Asda shop.

For the first time, a supermarket is using the power of the web to guarantee its prices cannot be beaten.  The price checker is powered by, and built by, mysupermarket.co.uk, guaranteeing its independence.  It will also be available to grocery shoppers at www.asda.com.  

Andy Bond, CEO of Asda said this was a watershed moment in the history of Asda Price.  "From today, Asda cannot, and will not, be beaten on price. Our grocery guarantee puts an end to the phoney price wars that most shoppers are sick of.  Plain and simple, our Price Guarantee is our cast-iron promise that your basket of shopping will always be cheapest at Asda.

"And for the millions of shoppers who go elsewhere, my challenge is this - come to Asda this weekend and see for yourselves how much you'd save."  

Daniel King Chief Commercial Officer of mySupermarket.co.uk commented: "As an independent consumer champion our aim is always to help shoppers compare prices across the supermarkets in a fair and comprehensive way, and to make sure they get the best value for money.  We are powering the Asda Price Guarantee website to help shoppers continue to do this and we will be running all the comparisons based on independently collected prices. UK shoppers now have more tools at their finger tips than ever before to help them make their money go further when it comes to their grocery shopping."

Asda has been able to launch the APG because the majority of items bought by shoppers in its stores are identical to those available at competitor supermarkets.

Mysupermarket.co.uk will compare like-for-like branded or own label groceries, accounting for around 70 per cent of all grocery sales at Asda.

Around 10 per cent of products at Asda are unique to the store and therefore are not included in the price checker. However, an additional 20 per cent could be comparable but not without changes to strict trading standards regulations.  For example, Asda Brand Pickled Onions, Asda Brand Frosted Flakes Cereal, Asda Brand Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets & Asda Brand Ardennes Pate cannot be included due to small differences in the size of packets.

Terms & Conditions

• Price reductions and promotions (such as "2 for 1 pounds Sterling", "3 for 2" and "buy one get one free") are included but promotions such as "buy strawberries and get cream free" are excluded due to the difficulty in making fair comparisons.
• Products can only be compared if there are like for like products at all of the competitor supermarkets.
• Mysupermarket.co.uk has also stipulated that no products which have a pack size difference of more than 10% can be compared.
• Customers have 28 days to check the price of their shop from the date of purchase. If they qualify for a money-off coupon they must redeem it at any Asda store within 28 days of issue.
• Non grocery categories are not currently covered in the Asda Price Guarantee and include: Home, Electricals, Furnishings, Garden, Entertainment, Hardware, Sports, George, Kiosk, Jewellery, Pharmacy, Optical, Fuel, Photo-processing and Dry Cleaning and all online only products including financial services, flowers, mobile, travel and gifts.
• Customers will not be able to claim a refund for more than 25 pounds in any month nor make more than 10 claims in any month per household. If they have returned any items that are on their receipt, they will not be able to compare prices for those items.
• Full Ts &Cs can be found at www.asda.com/priceguarantee

About Asda Stores Ltd.

Founded in the 1960s, Asda today is one of Britain's leading retailers.  It has over 170,000 dedicated Asda colleagues serving customers from 374 stores, including 25 ASDA Living stores, 23 depots and eight recycling centres across the UK (Great Britain and Northern Ireland).  It has its main home office in Leeds, Yorkshire and its George clothing division based in Lutterworth Leicestershire.  Asda serves over 18 million shoppers a week in store and its growing home shopping business serves over 97 per cent of UK homes.

About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), or "Walmart," serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,400 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.0 million associates worldwide. A leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity, Walmart ranked first among retailers in Fortune Magazine's 2009 Most Admired Companies survey. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting www.walmartstores.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com and www.samsclub.com.

SOURCE Asda