Customer Services
Frequently Asked Questions |
| General Company Info | |
| What year was ASDA founded? The company was founded in 1965 by a group of farmers from Yorkshire and we became part of the Wal-Mart family in 1999. We offer Britain's best value weekly shop with prices on average 10% lower than our main competitiors and an unmatchable mix of fresh food, grocery, clothing, home, leisure, and entertainment goods. | |
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| How many stores do you currently have? We currently have 260 stores situated throughout England, Scotland and Wales. | |
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| How many colleagues do you employ? We employ 150,000 colleagues who have a reputation for being the best and friendliest in the industry, and we work with over 2,800 suppliers. Our stores are "stores of the community," playing a positive part in all aspects of local life. | |
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| Where can I find out more information about Wal-Mart? You can find more information on Wal-Mart on their web-site which can be found at www.walmartstores.com | |
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| Do you run a customer loyalty scheme? We ran a scheme in 19 of our stores across the country on a trial basis, and which gave us some very useful information. As a result we decided to cancel the trial because to operate it in every store would have been very expensive and we wouldn't have been able to keep our prices as low as we do at the moment. One of the things we learned from running the ASDA Club in a few stores is that a lot of our customers prefer low prices now, rather than gifts in the future. We believe that cutting prices across the board through our Rollback programme is the best way of rewarding our customers' loyalty. | |
| Company Policies | |
| Do you sell halal meat? Yes, we currently offer halal lamb and chicken in order to meet the demands of the 1 million Muslims who live in the UK. We also offer other ranges of ethnic foods, such as those found in Hong Kong and Kingston, Jamaica. Allow me to assure you that the slaughter process has been carefully set and is regularly monitored by our Product Development Team. Halal lamb and chicken sold in ASDA stores is supplied by reputable companies. Our suppliers use the head only electron stun method for lamb and an electric water bath is used for chickens. | |
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| Do you as a company support fair trade? ASDA is working with voluntary organisations (Christian Aid, The Fair-trade Foundation), the Government and other retailers as part of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). The ETI will help ensure the many benefits to co-operation between retailers are maximised. Not least the fact that we share many suppliers and therefore a common standard would help all concerned and aid faster implementation. The ETI has an agreed Code of Practice against which eventually all our suppliers will be measured using independent third party auditing. This provides reassurance to both ASDA and therefore to our customers, that what is claimed is actually taking place and real progress is being made. We have already begun the process of informing our suppliers of the code and are participating in pilot studies with the ETI. The pilots will help us develop a method of implementing the standard in the most cost effective manner and in a way that allows as many suppliers as possible to improve, rather than only working with those who currently meet the requirements. In this way the maximum number of workers will benefit, which is the ultimate aim of the programme. | |
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| Do your products contain any genetically modified ingredients? We listen to our customers and they have told us that they have some concerns about Genetically Modified ingredients. We have responded to those and have taken action in line with their concerns. In fact we have now successfully removed GM protein and protein derivatives from all ASDA own-brand products. | |
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| What is your stance on animal testing? At ASDA we are against animal testing and none of our own branded products have been tested on animals, either by ourselves or our suppliers. | |
| Wal-Mart Info | |
| How many stores do Wal-Mart have globally? The company employs more than 1 million associates worldwide through nearly 3,500 stores in the United States and more than 1,000 units in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom. More than 100 million customers per week visit Wal-Mart stores. | |
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| When did the first Wal-Mart store open? The first Wal-Mart store opened in 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas. In 1970 the Home Office and the first distribution centre were opened in Bentonville, Arkansas. 1983 saw the first Sam’s Club open. In 1988 Wal-Mart opened their first supercentre and in 1991 the first international store opened in Mexico. | |
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| What was Wal-Marts annual turnover last year? Wal-Mart confirmed its position as the world's largest retailer, with $191 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2001. | |
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| Where can I found out more information about Wal-Mart? You can find more information on Wal-Mart at the following web-sites :- www.walmart.com www.walmartstores.com www.samsclub.com www.walmartfoundation.org | |
| Our Services | |
| What extra services do you offer your disabled customers? We offer a whole range of additional services for our disabled customers, ranging from Electric scooters to Braille guns. More information about these services can be found on the ‘Our Services’ page of this site. | |
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| What happens if I am overcharged? If you have been overcharged in any of our stores we will gladly refund the difference (if you have been overcharged) and give you a £2 Gift card voucher for each product you have been mischarged for. |
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