Asda goes in low on food-to-go with new fixed-price meal deal

Asda has made the latest play in the increasingly competitive lunchtime food-to-go space with the launch of its first-ever fixed-price meal deal.

At just £3.74 for a main, snack and drink, Asda declared it as the lowest priced non-membership meal deal on the UK market – Poundland’s £3 meal deal is currently unavailable due to a company restructure.

It comes at a time when inflationary pressures saw Tesco recently increase prices of its standard and premium meal deals by 25p and 50p, respectively. Meanwhile, Greggs rolled out its own £5 lunchtime offer and Pret began trials on a range of meal deal options for breakfast and lunch dayparts.

Here’s a comparison of other standard meal deals at rival supermarkets:

The new Asda offer replaces its existing 3-for-2 deal at food to go counters, and is also available in all 478 Asda Express stores nationwide. Customers can choose from 132 mains, 336 snacks and 222 drinks within the food to go fixture including a wide selection of own-label sandwiches and wraps, as well as branded items such as Doritos Tangy Cheese Tortilla Grab Bag Crisps and Coca Cola Zero.

Savings of up to 50% when compared to buying items individually can be achieved via the meal deal. An optimum example given was for a Chicken and Bacon Triple Wrap, Asda Toffee Apple Slices, and Starbucks Grande Cup, which would normally total £7.38.

“At Asda, we believe great value should be available to everyone,” commented Amy Wotherspoon, buyer of food to go at Asda. “That’s why we’re launching the new £3.74 Meal Deal that is completely open to all customers – with no app or membership required, and a big range of products to choose from so there’s something for everyone.”

The retailer said it is predicting to sell over 700,000 of the new meal deals in the first week and revealed its best-selling main is the classic Asda Cheese & Onion Sandwich, currently selling over 50,000 a week.

In addition to its big savings claims, Asda confirmed that all its meal deals will be fully HFSS compliant ahead of the new legislation that affects multi-buy promotions. However, the Labour government is looking to repeal the restrictions, which had been set to come into force on 1 October, in favour of a “smarter regulation” strategy focussed on outcomes as part of its new 10-year health plan.