By bizn_fun 
“Rollbacks” are temporary price reductions. This time round, after the Rollback ends, the products are then moved to a new “Asda Price” which are “guaranteed” to be lower than the original pre-Rollback price.
Leighton said his aim was to make Asda 5-10% cheaper than other traditional supermarkets by the end of 2026, and he was prepared to take a big hit on profits, in the short term, to achieve it.
One year on from its launch, Asda’s pricing has improved. Data provided to the BBC by retail research firm Assosia shows that Asda’s prices on more than 30 branded items were mostly cheaper than Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons based on promotional deals over the festive quarter.
The retailer has also regularly come top of a closely watched weekly price survey run by The Grocer magazine. It doesn’t include Aldi and Lidl.
“At times in the last year, Asda has certainly been 5% cheaper than all its established rivals,” says Adam Leyland, editor-in-chief of The Grocer.
The trouble is, the price cuts don’t appear to have made any difference.
“For shoppers, it’s not just about price,” says Leyland. Customer service, in-store experience and range is also important as well as perception about “value” and brand appeal.
That sentiment is echoed by Madeline in Crawley. She says she avoids doing her weekly shop at the town’s Asda.
“A lot of the shelves are quite empty, and there are always trolleys in the aisles when they’re filling up shelves. Sometimes you can’t get to where you want to be — it puts you off.”
One key supplier I spoke to said Asda needed to strike a better balance by investing more in stores and availability, and getting a grip on “the basic fundamentals of retailing”.
Asda has put more staff in stores and insists it is making progress.
But once you’ve lost shoppers, it’s very hard to win them back, especially when many of your rivals are firing on all cylinders, helped by price matching and loyalty schemes, in an intensely competitive market.