Dear Mr Clarke,

As the Chief Executive of Asda I would like to congratulate you on your latest attempts to reduce waste within the supermarket supply chain, in turn helping to support our farmers and, as a result of that, then offering vegetables (whatever they may look like) at such a reasonable rate to the consumer – the residents of the United Kingdom. That is, of course, only if you live in the South of England!

I read and naturally shared the various articles on social media yesterday regarding the introduction of your £3.50 ‘Wonky Veg Boxes’ as I thought this would be great for young families, the elderly and the other residents I represent in Northumberland, who are on a budget.

Imagine my surprise when residents began pointing out that none of our local stores in the North of England or even Scotland for that matter would be taking part, even on a trial basis.

I am by now more than used to seeing the North of England and Scotland being treated as the poor relations to the rest of the United Kingdom in the allocation of funding by central government (where there is more spent per head of the population in the South than in the North) what I am not used to is that type of policy being administered by private companies like Asda, especially in such a blatant way.

I can assure you that there are no similarities between the North of England and the cold wastelands of the ‘North’ in Game of Thrones – Asda has nothing to fear by daring to tread on new ground and treat us the same as King’s Landing (The South).

I had naturally presumed that a pound that I spend in your store was worth the same to Asda as a pound spent by someone in the South of England.

This does not appear to be the case given that there are absolutely no stores beyond Leeds taking part in the £3.50 ‘Wonky Veg Box’ offer. It could be argued that the North of England along with Scotland would benefit from this offer the most, given that many places have some of the highest levels of deprivation, lowest levels of income and some of the highest obesity rates in the United Kingdom.

Your bargain veg box could actually be a life saver for many families across the North of England and in Scotland.

For a company founded in the North in 1949, have you forgotten your northern roots? I would urge you to seriously reconsider your position and allow stores in the North of England and in Scotland to take part and to sell these boxes. Failing that my custom in the future will happily go to any stores or supermarkets that will put forward the same offer but who will not clearly discriminate the areas of the United Kingdom in which the offer will be available.

Yours sincerely

Steven Bridgett

Northumberland