Asda Hale Barns Opening
The opening hours are Monday to Saturday 7am-10pm, and Sunday 10am-4pm.
It's 28th May 2024. At 9:56am I left the State Fayre Bakery where I'd just bought a cake (which used to be available in Booths), crossed the road, and headed to the Square in Hale Barns. Outside the brand new Asda, a queue is building up. Photographers and people with vidoe cameras are recording. At 10am the doors open, the people in the queue cheer and start filing in.
I speak to one of the guys with a camera who says he is working for Asda doing promotional work. I was surprised at this, as compared to Booths which was very much a community centred store (they liased with the local press), Asda completely ignored any requests for press releases, previews and information in the months before the opening. The only way I could find details out about Asda's new store was to speak to the previous Booths employees who transferred over.
The first thing I am struck by when entering the store is a very bright LED spotlight shining in my face so brightly, it gives me a headache when I look at it. Then, I notice above it is a large TV screen showing squares being highlighted around people's faces - indicating it is a facial recognition camera.
I walk into the store and have a look around. Rather than give you a tour, I'll just give a list of pluses and minuses compared to Booths:
Worse than Booths:
-Less choice in magazines and newspapers.
-Less variety in products on the shelves.
-I couldn't find any organic foods.
-Some, but not all, products seemed to have more artificial ingredients and were more processed.
-Less choice of beer, wine and mineral water.
Better than Booths:
-Lower prices on all branded goods.
-Lower prices on own label goods.
-Takeaway pizza and lots of sushi (previously not available at Booths).
-Larger choice of drinks in the cafe.
I found Asda Hale Barns to have a large number of products from their higher end range, similar to "Taste the Difference" at Sainsbury's or "Finest" at Tesco. In terms of the actual store fixtures and fittings very little has been changed. The cafe has some of the same tables and chairs as Booths did, with some new and updated more comfortable chairs.
I'll look forward to visiting the cafe, the store is useful to pick up a few items and maybe get some take-away food which seemed to be at low prices.
I hope Asda are able to make a profitable venuture out of it and that more people use it for their weekly shop, rather than just selective shopping. It would be a shame if it closed and the store was left empty. In today's cost of living crisis it might do quite well.