"asda" news and stories

When you bite into a loaf of bread, the thing that you would least expect to find is a rusty nail. A British man found exactly that, however, in a loaf he purchased from an Asda supermarket in Dorset.

Chris Lambie was sitting at the dinner table with his teenage daughter when he discovered the nail. Fortunately, though he actually bit into it, the rusty nail did not cut or injure him in any way.

Lambie contacted the local consumer protection agency and filed a complaint at the store, where he turned in the loaf. The loaf was subsequently lost by the store, which apologized profusely to the man and stated that they will be "calling Mr Lambie to discuss this with him in further detail" while they launch an investigation. The loaf came from a mix that is supplied to Asda and the manufacturer has been contacted, but no similar incidents have been reported.

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The UK's second largest (or is it third?) supermarket chain retailer, Asda-Walmart,  is facing the possibility of strikes.

Talks between management and the GMB workers union have broken down with the union now balloting staff on strike action. The talks were aimed at improving employee conditions. The breakdown follows hours of talks between the two sides and a hefty court fine (£850,000) for Asda. The fine was  imposed by an employment tribunal that found Asda quilty of promising 340 distribution staff a 10 per cent pay rise to give up the collective bargaining right negotiated by their union – an act which is illegal under 1992 labour relations law.

The strike would hit the company's distribution depots with obviouse consequences.

British supermarket chains, such as Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, are rethinking their pork supplier. The Polish pig farms that produced much of the supermarket pork products have been condemned for "'appalling' animal welfare practices."

The farms in question are in Poland and have been run by Animex, a subsidiary of the American company Smithfield Foods, since 2002. An undercover investigation revealed industrial factory farms, conditions where hundreds of pigs were crammed into light-less barns with dead companions rotting underfoot. The investigation also found that "powerful cocktails of drugs," including a cocktail of antibiotics that is banned or considered to be a growth-promoter in other countries. One such drug is Tylbian 20%, a form of the growth promoting drug Tylosin, which was banned by the European Union in 1999. Local residents showed investigators large open-air cesspits of pig waste and farm detritus that included syringes and needles.

Waitrose has already pulled the products supplied by this producer. No wrong-doing has been shown on the part of Smithfield Foods and a Smithfield representative denied knowledge of such conditions, assuring the public that it would investigate thoroughly.

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It seems a long time in coming. Concerns over the dominance of the four big supermarket chains in the UK have been bubbling along for several years.

At last, an inquiry is to be launched after the Office of Fair Trading ruled that the Competition Commission must launch a probe into their activities. The main source of concern is that the top supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrison's - are forcing local convenience stores out of business. Their dominance of food retailing has risen dramatically over the past few years.

While there are avenues independent retailers can take - specialism, niche and upmarket, this is obviously not suitable for every town and area. To me, the obvious step is to give substantial tax rebates (lower council imposed rates for example) to the one or two shop independents to allow them to prosper.

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