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YOU ASDA HAND IT TO ‘EM

02-06-2007

Nine branches of Kwik Save shut in the Black Country this week - in Dudley, Tipton, Cannock, Lichfield, West Brom, Smethwick, Blackheath and Wolvo. As Edward Cameron reports, Asda have seen their chance.

You’ve got to hand it to ASDA. The supermarket giant hasn’t missed an opportunity to both make money and recruit trained staff in the wake of a number of Kwik Save stores going belly up across the West Midlands.

This weekend it’s offering Kwik Save customers a free reusable Bag for Life, two pints of milk and a freshly baked 800 grams bloomer loaf. All they have to do is show a Kwik Save receipt or carrier bag this Sunday and Monday.

ASDA marketing director, Rick Bendel said: “We understand that this has been a tough time for Kwik Save’s customers and colleagues and we’d like to make life a little easier for all of them.

“That’s why we’re offering people who would normally shop at one of the closed stores a free bottle of milk and a loaf of bread.”

And here’s the olive branch for 150 people who found themselves out of a job this weekend: “We want to let Kwik Save colleagues know that our door is open if they’d like to come to their local ASDA store and talk about a job with us.”

I can’t decide whether this is a brilliant gesture or the Walmart vultures swallowing the remains of a smaller chain that just couldn’t compete.

The capitalist in me thinks why not? Kwik Save’s shut so there’s no harm in making a bit of cash while those newly redundant staff might be pretty grateful for a chance of work again so soon.

But there’s a part of me that screams in outrage at the fact that without the unbeatable expansion of the ASDAs and Tescos of this world chains like Kwik Save would still have a place.

But I guess it’s all kind of a moot point now.

Are Asda vultures swooping on the misery of others? Or canny business folk? Leave a comment on the Message Board.

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