A FOOD poverty campaigner has praised supermarket Asda after finding more of its ‘Smart Price’ products on a recent shopping trip.

Jack Monroe had previously criticised the supermarket for removing many of its cheapest product ranges from stores, meaning the poorest families were seeing huge price jumps for basic items.

The disappearance of ‘value’ items meant prices on some basics had doubled and tripled she said in a Twitter thread that went viral and shone further light on the cost-of-living crisis.

After visiting an Asda store on Saturday, she found many ‘Smart Price’ and ‘Farm Stores’ products had returned, with the prices of some even falling, and said it contributed to her “happiest shopping experience in over a decade”.

In response to her initial thread, Asda said it would stock its Smart Price and Farm Stores ranges in all 581 food stores and online by March 1 to help its customers with the cost-of-living crisis, with 200 products fully available to shoppers.

Monroe said: “I was very quick to vilify Asda for what I saw as a change of direction for their company, and a watering down of their commitment to an entire group of their customers.”

The company promised to “do better”, she said, as she praised the “remarkable” speed of the turnaround.

“The impact this will have on millions of people, is impossible to overstate,” she said, adding that she “cried, quietly, to myself, in Asda” at the development.

She also wrote: “So I guess I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at Asda who has worked really hard over the last few weeks to bring the missing Smart Price products back.”

Meg Farren, Asda’s chief customer officer, said: “We want to help our customers’ budgets stretch further and have taken on board the comments about the availability of our Smart Price range made by Jack Monroe.

“We are taking steps to put our full Smart Price and Farm Stores ranges in store and online to make these products as accessible as possible.”

Asda has seven stores in the Bradford district; in Little Horton, Lidget Green, Rooley Lane, Shipley, Greengates, Wyke, and Keighley, with a further three stores nearby in Guiseley, Pudsey, and Otley.

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