'Womblers' hit out at Asda's decision to axe price guarantee

The practice of 'wombling' involves making use of discarded supermarket receipts that can earn the shopper money off via price match guarantees, if the items on the receipts would have been cheaper at a rival store.

All major supermarkets bar Asda banned the pastime – but yesterday the supermarket announced it's scrapping its price guarantee from Wednesday 3 October, essentially ending the opportunity to womble there.

Now Stephen Auker, who founded the 'Wombles for Cash' Facebook group and since 2010 has claimed vouchers worth £1,000s, has released a video asking fellow womblers to give Asda the "thumbs down" over the scheme's closure.

His video has already drawn dozens of comments from other womblers mourning the end of the wombling era and calling on Asda to reinstate the scheme.

Read more about Stephen's exploits in our  MSE News story.

'The end of wombling as we know it'

In his video (which you can watch below), Stephen calls the closure of the Asda Price Guarantee "very sad news".

He talks about how much he has raised for charities via food donations from wombling, and how the practice has saved many families £100s if not £1,000s.

Stephen said: "This is the end of wombling as we know it.

"Asda tells us that only 1% of Asda shoppers use the Asda Price Guarantee – I would dispute that. There's lots of womblers out there. There's thousands around the country and I doubt it's just 1%. 

"There are other ways to womble but none of them are going to be as lucrative as Asda has been. It was the champion of all wombling opportunities.

"You've got to use your Asda Price Guarantees you've got before the 3rd [of October]. So what I would do is womble as hard as you damn well can."

Other womblers have also hit out at Asda for the changes, with one responding to Stephen's video by saying: "Asda customers should vote with their feet and boycott them, if enough do it they may change their minds."

Another added: "Won't be shopping there anymore."

A third said: "Maybe if people start boycotting Asda and they [lost] a lot of customers, they might bring in some other sort of loyalty scheme, like Tesco Clubcard."

What does Asda say?

Asda said in a statement on its website yesterday that the decision to scrap the guarantee had been "difficult".

It added: "It's a decision we've not taken lightly because we love it dearly, but in reality, we know our customers don't love it enough for us to keep it.

"Instead they want us to focus our investment on lowering our prices, and they'll let us know if we're falling out of step with the competition."

You can read more about Asda's reason for scrapping its price guarantee in a blog.