It's a Noodle Bar not a Wine Bar: ASDA

Tuesday 15 July 2014

ASDA

ASDA is a leading British supermarket chain, which can trace its origin back to the 1920s when a group of Yorkshire dairy farmers clubbed together to share pasteurising equipment, and to better market and distribute their milk. Originally called Hindell's Dairy Farmers Ltd, after a series of acquisitions they went public in 1949 under the name Associated Dairies & Farm Stores. In 1965 Associated Dairies merged with a Leeds based butchers and supermarket company, Asquiths, to form ASDA. Asquith was at the forefront of the emerging discount supermarket business, and ASDA were led by by the Asquith family, so Associated Dairies' money and resources were used to expand the supermarket side of things, until eventually retailing took over completely. The company was bought by the American owned Wal-Mart in 1999. It is Britain's third largest supermarket chain, with a focus on low prices and customer service in huge out of town premises.

The chain sells regular (Chosen by you) and budget (Smart Price) own brand noods in both packet and pot form. Sometimes they state the country of origin (China) and sometimes they don't - but the ones not marked with country of origin are highly likely to come from Asia. Some, regardless of the flavour, contain chicken, and some, even though it might say chicken flavour, don't contain any meat. It appears to be fairly random. There isn't a big difference in either price or quality between the regular and budget brands. The regular has stronger colours on the packaging, and slightly more assertive flavouring, but not much. Though cheap, these are not good value noods, and there is nothing much in their favour. Unoriginal flavours, and bland tasting. You can do better elsewhere. Indeed, pretty much anywhere else.