Our first ever World Food Store is now open and the new-style store has already attracted a lot of interest.
As much as a fifth of the new-look store at Asda Hounslow is now dedicated to specialist foods for our Asian, Irish, Mediterranean, Afro Caribbean and Polish customers. This includes two ethnic food counters in the store run by outside companies: Delicja, a Polish deli counter hosted by Polish colleagues, and Haji Baba a local Halal butcher who has been in the area for 30 years.
We’ve been planning the changes for several months as a result of customer feedback and have worked with local ethnic communities and customer listening groups to make sure we’ve got the right products at the best prices.
Cat Ramsden, Emerging Markets Customer Planning Manager at Asda, was interviewed about it for the You and Yours programme on BBC Radio 4 and was asked whether it would put local shopkeepers out of business. Cat thinks not.
“There’s no way we can offer the depth of range those stores are offering,” she says. “There will always be the opportunity for customers to go to those stores.
“It’s all about our customers. They want to buy more Asian, Polish and Caribbean products at Asda. Our customers are busy people – they don’t necessarily have time to go round all the different shops.”
The editor of Asian Trader magazine says Asda’s move into this market presents a great opportunity for local businesses who can win on personal service. “Those small shops have to become better in what they do,” he says. “Better prices, fresh meat and a better service. Your local Halal butcher can greet you by name. Successful retailers have to bring all those elements together.”
The new World Food store officially opened on November 2 so if you’re in the area pop in and have a look for yourself.
What ethnic products would you like to see in your local store? Leave a comment below for our World Foods team.
Posted by Trina on 02 November 2009, 07:00Posted in:
35 Comments for "Our first World Food Store opens at Asda Hounslow"
This is great news not only from the ‘ethnic’ customer’s perspective but also from the point of view of the British shopper. It is very likely that brands like Tymbark, having successfully targeted the emigrant Polish population (estimated at around 1mln) will be eager to explore the possibilities of positioning their brands to suit the indigenous 60mln population. At The Value Engineers we see it as the next step for some brands, particularly those with mainstream product appeal. Well done Asda for consciously and intelligently addressing this market in the UK.
Would love to see this World Food range open in Scotland, specifically the Asda Govan.
I would also love you to look at stocking a number of American products especially Mountain Dew, Life savers and Jolly Ranchers.
please can you stock mountain dew.
Hi. We don’t sell Mountain Dew currently but if we do find that there is a big enough demand then this will change! Helen
I would love to see more authentic chinese food in store, e.g. congee, and japanese food also. Malaysian food is delicious too.
I would love you to stock a few US brands 1/ mountain dew 2/ stove top stuffing (made by kraft) and 3/ hot buffallo chicken marinade. I lived in the US for a few years and while I was there I yearned for baked beans and sausages and bacon and the like but now that I am home I find myself wanting all of the above but cannot source them over here at all I am sure they would be great sellers.
Please Please Please can you think about the thousands of mums who are weaning their babies and put Pumpkin on the shelves for more than just halloween where they are completely wasted as a food product.
My lovely 7 month old daughter absolutely loves pumpkin lots of the weaning recipes include pumpkin because its a good source of lots of vitamins and minerals as well as an easy and palatable food. Some of us find that our babies don’t want food without it in but after Halloween its nearly impossible to find.
I do realise that it is a seasonal product but PLEASE PLEASE can we have pumpkin on the shelves for those of us that do actually want to eat it!!!
Hey can you please stock mountain dew because im sick of paying for it from american food websites ad for £2 a can in cardiff town
I would really love it ( and so would many of my friends) if Asda could bring low carb or sugar free Items over from the US Walmart… I love shopping in the US as there are so many Items for my way of eating. I come home and I am back to only finding sweets that are sugar free.
The Jello range would be great to have here for starters. Also Low carb bread and wraps would be wonderful.
Do you sell mountain dew
Hi Josh,
we do have kosher products from Israel in our range, all of the Yarden brand in the ambient (tins, packets & jars), frozen and fresh ranges is from Israel. We also have British Kosher brands and Kosher products imported from the US. Our Kosher range is stocked in selected stores which are close to large Jewish communities and we’ll be refreshing our Kosher range in Feburary next year.
In London you could try our Southgate Circus, Park Royal, Colindale, Leyton, Wembley or Clapham stores for Kosher products.
Hope that helps! Helen
I would like to see World Foods that are Kosher from Israel, America and Britain, as I am Jewish
I think that Asda should work closely with the London Beth Din, which is part of the United Synagogue and other Synagogue authorities to make this happen
I love asda and do all my shopping with you. I would greatly appreciate it if you could stock bacon flavour rancheros which used to be sold in the UK but are now only available in Ireland. Please, please, please stock them in Corby. It would be amazing to be able to enjoy this amazing snack once again!
Oana, we are currently looking into how we can expand from just Polish into an Eastern European range and will be working on this in 2010.
Sharon, I’m not sure whereabouts in Hampshire you are but you could try our Feltham, Kingston upon Thames or Hounslow stores for Irish ranges.
At the moment, we only stock authentic world foods where there is a big demand for them but we review this all of the time so we’ll look into these requests for authentic American products to see what we can stock.
Currently we do not stock our world foods in Scottish stores but again, we are reviewing this next year with the hope of expanding where our customers want us to.
Hope that answers some of your queries and thanks for all of the ideas, Helen
Great to have Asda at my door step, we’re in there almost every day!
I would love to see a Romanian food section and I think it would be popular since the Romanian community is so large now in Hounslow. I’m sure that if you do a bit of research you’ll find out that it’s worth while.
Mountain Dew definitely
FRIENDS HAVE COME OVER HERE AND TASTED PUMPKIN PIE. THEY LIVE IN HANLEY. WHAT THEY WOULD LIKE IS TO BE ABLE TO GET CANNED PUMPKIN AND FLUFF (MARSHMALLOW CREME). I HAVE TO SHIP THEM THE CANS AND THE TUBS FROM HERE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
i love polish food but sadly asda cumbernauld has very basic selection and its the same stuff every week. luckily the tesco store sells a wider variety but as a lifelong asda customer i would prefer to shop at asda. theres definately a market for it as sales at tesco obviously show as they bring in new lines every month.
An Indian sweet counter would be an excellent touch!
Also I applaud you for producing your own brand of soya yoghurts, yet your Vegan options in Asda is still limited. The frozen and chilled ‘meat free range’ is full of egg and milk ingredients, yet there are plenty of brands which do wonderful Vegan frozen and chilled foods, such as Frys, Grassingtons and Cheatin’. Things like Vegan doughnuts, cakes, marshmallows, fudge, yorkshire puddings if reasonably priced would be an excellent hit. Vegans in the UK have to look online for most of these products – I would love to see them in Asda.
I’d like to see some Aussie brands such as burger rings, twisties and cheezle crisps and uncle toby’s museli bars.
Not really an ethnic product, but I see on your Asda direct website that you stock Barry’s tea,(which is Irish, and the best cup of tea I have tasted), but this is not available instore. Would it be possible to change this and make it available, as it would save me stocking up when on holiday.
Any chance you might consider some English food? Now that my local ASDA has closed down its deli to make way for halal meat, I am unable to buy basic items like ham, cheese and chicken that aren’t pre-packed.
A chioce of Afro Caribbean food in Scotland Dundee or Kirkcaldy stores equal to those avilable in the West Midland stores would be great . Especially Jenkies Curry Patties.
One of the joys of travelling is to taste different cuisines. I think its brilliant that ASDA should be promoting ‘ethnic’ type foods, not only to satisfy those specific communities, but also for the enjoyment of the rest of us who like to try something different.
Any chance that you could consider a small pilot scheme in Northern Ireland? (Not all of us live off potatoes and two veg!!)
Hi everyone. Thanks for all of your feedback. There are some great ideas for new products here which I’ll look in to with the buying teams. Please keep telling us your ideas, the more the better! Helen (Emerging Markets Customer Planner)
Shiner beer from texas. I admit i am slightly biased as the family of one of my friends owns the brewery but it is a gorgeous beer far better than coors, bud etc
prawn crackers you can cook yourself rather than precooked. I used to be able to buy them from a small store but they stopped doing them. you cannot beat watching them puff up when you fry them and as i introduced several american and canadian friends to them on my trip over last year i have them clamouring for me to mail them more boxes as they don’t have them over there. You would become very popular if you did
Mountain Dew is needed in the store
i can guarantee you that so many people would buy it
Would like to see more American products ,Floridas Natural Orange Juice Tootsy rolls SoBe Drinks especially green tea and payays and big reds
I would love to see the Irish products which are currently on sale in your Luton store on sale closer to my home. Have you any plans to to broaden this venture further afield.
GO ON ASDA!! GOOD ON YOU!!! BEST TO GET AS MUCH WORLD FOOD IN TO THE AREAS AS POSSIBLE TO SHUT PPL LIKE THAT MAN UP!!!
hey i’m writing on this as a local business owner of a meat shop in the local area , i think the customer hahal shop is wonderful and great business sence for asda as it gives more choice and revenue , but for me as a business owner it is very hard to compete with asda on this scale my business as been affected by this in a big way , ican not give choice on this scale like asda do , but if asda where so concerned about local business they should put us into there ecomonys of scale model and supplie us with meat , they are destoying local businesses with cut priceing schemes which i cannot compete with , in times like this it just tells you how big companys think the know it all but just masscare small businesses on the way .. COME ON WAKE UP YOUR PR WORKS FOR YOU BUT DESTROYS Businesses.. So thank you ASDA for the brilliant PR as you say new markets , its just mass marketing for profits simple model with high yield turnover ..for you asda . GIve the small guys a chance , but you cannot not as profits meann more then ethics .
Mike from Taunton should move to the North Pole, where it is colourless and white.
What is wrong with Asda selling Halal meat? I used to live in Dubai, a Muslim city where pork is available in some supermarkets and where Christmas trees are put up in some shopping malls.
You must realise that Britain is a multicultural society and that is how it will always be. How do you expect me as a Muslim, to eat non-Halal meat?
Wake up and smell the coffee.
Asda, Bravo for embracing multiculturalism and for supplying ethnic minorities with ethnic choices.
I was dismayed to read the recent story in the Daily Express of how you plan to have a Halal meat section in your Isle of Dogs store at the expense of your normal meat counter. Ethnic peoples coming to the United kingdom to live should come willing to fit in with the lifestyle of the UK. We are seeing that this terribly flawed imposition of multiculturalism on this nation is causing huge problems. Basically it is not working yet you seem blind to the problems that are being caused & are actively participating in making barriers with schemes like this.
I wondered if you have any intention of changing to selling only Fair Trade bananas. Is the artificially low price of your bananas passed on to the growers? We may save a small amount of money, but Fair Trade bananas make a huge difference to the growers and their families.