Asda starts telephone shopping

ASDA, THE supermarket group, will announce a new telephone ordering service this week which will enable customers to order their goods from a central warehouse . The "call and collect" service will offer groceries and clothes as well as CDs, videos and books, which will then be delivered to customers' homes. "Other supermarkets have offered this service but only on a local level, which restricts the customers to products that are available at the back of the local store," an Asda spokeswoman said. "But a central warehouse will give customers a wider choice we will be able to offer the full range of products that we stock nationwide."

Asda is looking for an 80,000 sq ft warehouse to service the whole of the M25 area. "We are really going on the offensive here, and looking to gain market share in an area that traditionally has always been seen as one of our weak spots," the company said.