Ros Snowdon: Where Asda leads, it seems that the parent will follow

Joking aside, it does appear that the new mood of optimism seems to be trickling down as far as us lowly hacks.

These trips provide an amazing opportunity to get close to our key companies. I went out to Wal-Mart’s HQ thinking that I’d be learning about the innovations that Asda is picking up from its US parent, but in truth the key message was how much Asda is teaching Wal-Mart.

The US mdeia went big last week on the launch of a new Wal-Mart initiative called ‘Savings Catcher’, a scheme that promises to match rivals’ prices.

This is the scheme that Asda launched three years ago under its Asda Price Guarantee scheme, which also promises to be 10 per cent cheaper than rivals.

At Wal-Mart’s glitzy four-hour AGM meeting or ‘Shareholders’ as it’s called in Arkansas, the serious business of the day was interspersed with big name pop stars.

This year the meeting was hosted by actor Harry Connick Jr, who was joined on stage by Happy singer, Pharrell Williams, who also sang the best-selling single Blurred Lines alongside Robin Thicke.

But perhaps the most impressive turn came from Wal-Mart’s new CEO Doug McMillon, who seemed as happy in the crowd, confiscating offending baseball caps, as he was on stage bringing the whole Wal-Mart family together.

Asda is seen as the jewel in Wal-Mart’s international crown and Mr McMillon championed the achievements that Asda has made in its e-commerce operation, saying that much can be learned from the UK arm.

Standing in front of a photo of an Asda truck at a tube station in London, he told the 14,000 strong audience: “This is a picture of one of our pick-up points at a subway station in London – that’s in England.

“This is where customers can collect the items that they ordered. It may look like any other truck, but it offers access to 26,000 items today and who know how many items and services tomorrow.

“This is just one example of the integration of digital and physical.”

Asda’s CEO Andy Clarke flew out to Bentonville for Shareholders along with 170 colleagues, who were all nominated by their peers to come on the trip.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “The idea for ‘Savings Catcher’ came from the UK and now the US is developing it. In the US the till says if a rival offers a lower price. It’s innovative. We’ll watch with interest and if it’s of value, we’ll look at it.”

Last week was a tale of two very different AGMs at our leading Yorkshire retailers.

Asda’s staff have come back to Yorkshire energised and keen to put their learning into practice, but down the road at Bradford-based Morrisons it’s a very different scenario after former chairman Sir Ken Morrison lambasted the current management.

I have to say that I don’t think Sir Ken’s ‘bulls**t’ contribution was at all helpful.

Morrisons had no choice but to launch an internet operation and to open convenience stores.

Both are double-digit growth markets and Morrisons simply can’t just stand by and watch its rivals steal its customers.

Sir Ken and the old guard have a lot to answer for. Why did they sell off hundreds of smaller stores following the Safeway acquisition? They would have been perfect for convenience stores.

Also, what were they thinking using pen and paper to check stock?

Safeway had a far superior IT system but this was thrown out during the integration.

Yes Dalton Philips and the top management at Morrisons have made some mistakes – namely the purchase of Kiddicare and some ridiculous yo-yo pricing, but Mr Philips inherited a company that was fit for the nineties not 2014.