New ’Buy, Play, Trade’ Service Available In 235 Stores Nationwide

Asda announced today that it has launched trade in and pre-owned games in 235 stores nationwide following a successful five store trial.

Asda’s trade in and pre-owned games service will enable millions of its customers to bring in unwanted games and trade them in against other titles or exchange them for money. Any money exchanged will be placed onto an Asda ’Buy, Play, Trade’ card to reduce the price of future game purchases. If customers prefer, they can also choose to spend the money they receive on other products across the entire store.

The nationwide service means avid gamers can now save even more money off their entertainment purchases at Asda. The supermarket is already widely recognised as the price leader on new releases such as FIFA 11, which it sold last week for £29.97.

In order to launch its new trade in service with a bang, last week Asda also offered a market leading trade in deal, where customers could purchase FIFA 11 on Xbox360 or PS3 for just 97p. The trade in deal ran for three days and was a phenomenal success allowing Asda to recruit thousands of pre-owned leading titles from its customers.

Asda today announced it is slashing the price of core energy-saving products including low energy light bulbs, remote controlled sockets and window and door draught seals, in a bid to help the UK cut UK CO2 emissions by a massive 1/2 million tonnes.

Research by the supermarket showed customers could save up to £92m by picking up their energy saving light bulbs from Asda instead of Tesco.

With customers bracing themselves for price hikes in energy bills over winter, being ‘energy-saving savvy’ is a great way to save money as well as saving the environment. For example, by switching to low-energy light bulbs, households can save up to £45 per year, so with these great deals at Asda, there are even bigger savings to be made.

Asda is cutting the price of energy-saving light bulb sticks from £1 to £0.10p (90% reduction) and spirals from £2 to £0.40p (80% reduction). There are also significant savings on remote controlled sockets that cut standby mode on electrical items, from £15 to £5 (66% reduction).

Buying Manager Raj Varma, said: “We are passionate about helping our customers save money and now we’re helping them save the planet too! Changing all your light bulbs to energy saving ones can be costly but now with our great deals you can put them in your whole house for a fraction of the price.
“With the two million light bulbs we are selling, we can help the UK save 1/2 million tonnes of CO2 gas emissions which is enough CO2 to fill a whopping 2,475 double decker buses or over 100 hot air balloons.”

Asda sees sales of posh baking ingredients soar

To celebrate National Baking week, Asda’s sweet-toothed shoppers have been flocking to their nearest store to load their trolleys with all sorts of fanciful ingredients to impress their friends. Gone are the days that a simple fairy cake would suffice at teatime, now Brits are buying pots of edible Pink Shimmer Glitter, Silver and Gold Pearls and Madagascan Vanilla pods in an attempt to glam up their cakes!

With the advent of TV shows like Great British Bake Off and Rachel Allen’s Bake! that promote the joy of creative and arty baking, shoppers are feeling inspired and going all out in bake-offs all over the country.

Asda has seen sales of Pink Shimmer Glitter shoot up by a massive 210% in the last six months with coloured piping icings up by 54% and White Chocolate Stars increase by over 70%.

• Asda announces exclusive deal to stock Chris De Burgh album: “Moonfleet and Other Stories”
  
  
• Huge anticipation for the release, with pre orders being taken through asda.com
  
  
  

Today (13th October) Asda announces an innovative new retail partnership with Chris de Burgh. The partnership will see Chris de Burgh exclusively release his latest CD, “Moonfleet & Other Stories”, through Asda’s network of 379 stores on October 18th, 2010.

Family spending power remains low as the cost of essential goods outstrips earnings growth

• £4 a week decline in family spending power compared with the same month a year ago
• September was the ninth consecutive month of annual decline in the Asda Income Tracker
• Average UK household discretionary income was 2.1 per cent lower than in September 2009
• Gross incomes (excluding bonuses) were 2.6 per cent higher in September compared to the same month a year earlier
• The cost of essential goods and services was 3.3 per cent higher in September 2010 than in September 2009.

Just hours ahead of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), data from the latest Asda Income Tracker showed the average UK family had £4 a week less disposable income this month than a year earlier. Household discretionary income was 2.1pc lower than in September 2009 – the ninth consecutive month of decline in household spending power.