ASDA* is a supermarket chain in the UK, which trailed for many years behind
Tesco,
Sainsbury's and
Safeway. It was founded in 1965 by a group of
Yorkshire farmers. They sell the normal supermarket staples (groceries and other consumable domestic goods) as well as clothing in the
George line, and offer many other specialisations from
consumer electronics to financial products. Asda's brand image consists of dark green livery and the slogans "Permanently Low Prices
Forever"** and "
That's Asda Price" (with a pat of the back pocket).
They were recently (1999) purchased by the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart. One upshot of this is that the employees have become subjected to Wal-Mart's hippie-dippy 'we are all one big family' philosophy (for example, employees are called 'colleagues' rather like Starbucks's 'partners'). Another has been accelerated growth of the company, opening ten or more new outlets each year.
A friend of mine (who has been employed by Asda for over five years) warns against buying from the Asda bakery, as employees like to push their fingers into the dough. He also reports that popular pastimes in the warehouse include playing hockey with mini Babybels and bowling with Edam (using bottles of salad dressing for pins).
www.asda.co.uk
* short for "Associated Dairies"; according to employees, "Anything Simple Doesn't Apply".
** This doesn't make grammatical sense as far as I can see.