Gregory Robinson
Social media users have criticised a shop reselling Asda Just Essential meals amid the cost of living crisis.
Customer Jenny Turner-Reeves noticed the budget range being sold at an unnamed shop in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex.
In some cases, items were increased in price by up to 106 percent and the packaging had been discreetly altered.
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The microwave meals have a distinctive yellow wrapper – which did garner some criticism when the range launched – however, Jenny realised the Asda logo and ‘Just Essentials by Asda’ have been covered up by white labels.
She uploaded pictures of the meals on Facebook and people are outraged.
“So Asda decides to make an essential range to help those struggling now whatever your opinion is on it they tried,” she began.
“If the shop felt this was acceptable why did they cover any evidence of where this food came from.
“I think it’s disgraceful that in these times people are still trying to do people out of pocket.
“I am contacting trading standards and Asda and hope they get what’s coming to them.”
One Facebook user replied: “This is truly shocking unbelievable xx.”
Another user wrote: “Absolutely disgusting!”, while a third wrote: “That’s shocking!!! Hope Asda sort them out!”
A spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagne were both marked as £2.99, over double the price of its £1.45 RRP.
If shoppers wanted a punnet of blueberries, which usually cost 89p, they would have had to pay £1.75 price tag, with a 97 per cent increase.
And anyone fancying the bargain sweet and sour chicken with rice or sausage and mash would have instead also been looking at £2.99, rather than £1.45.
The shop also had Asda’s discontinued SmartPrice budget range, however, the supermarket’s branding had also been scribbled out.
The high demand for the Just Essentials range has led to Asda being forced to introduce a ration of three of any given item per customer.
An Asda spokesperson said: "Just Essentials is proving really popular at the moment and we’re working hard to get the out of stock products back on the shelves as quickly as we can.
"To make sure as many customers as possible can buy these products we are temporarily limiting purchases to a maximum of three of each product.
"This will be for a short period and we will let you know as soon these limits are removed. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Regarding the reselling, the spokesman added: "The Just Essentials range is exclusive to Asda and was recently introduced to help families during the cost of living crisis.
"We are aware of this example of reselling and would encourage customers to only buy these products directly from Asda to ensure they are receiving the best in quality and value.’’