- Asda produced 10,000 carrier bags for the launch of a new store in Newport
- The bags for life were decorated with a design by two local schoolchildren
- But eagle-eyed shoppers noticed a spelling mistake at the bottom of the bags
- The chain had written ‘Isle of White’ instead of ‘Isle of Wight’ in the address line
A supermarket chain has been mocked after printing 10,000 bags to mark a new store opening – and misspelling the ‘Isle of White’.
Asda produced the bags for life for the official launch of their Newport store on the Isle of Wight, with designs done by two local children, Ciaran and Ryan Peterson, aged ten and eight years.
But the designers didn’t spot a mistake in the address at the bottom of the bag, spelling ‘Isle of White’ instead of ‘Isle of Wight’.
The exclusive bags were designed by two local schoolchildren and printed to coincide with the Newport store’s opening
Instead of ‘Isle of Wight’ the company had written ‘Isle of White’ on the bags, and sent them to print without noticing
Asda has apologised for the error after shoppers rounded on the chain, using the hashtag #retailfail on Twitter.
Beth Burleigh posted on Twitter: ‘ASDA gaffe proves importance of #proofreading!’
One Twitter user suggested they’d found a new island, while others simply found it funny that they had failed to spell the place correctly when they were opening a store there.
But others were more sympathetic with Roy Gardner posting: ‘Most Marketers’ will feel a degree of sympathy here… it can happen to the best of us.’
Some Twitter users used the hashtag #retailfail to share images of the store’s bags on social media
Another Twitter user added a touch of supermarket pun to the mix when he tweeted ‘Lidl be all Wight on the night?’.
An Asda spokesman said: ‘We’re hanging our heads for making this genuine printing error and we’re in the process of reproducing the exclusive design to get back on sale as quickly as possible.’
One cynical user said the mistake might have just been a very clever publicity campaign by the store
Responding to a customer on Twitter later, one of the customer service team members appeared to poke fun at the incident.
Answering whether there was a new store opening, one replied: ‘Hi Alan. We haven’t heard about any new stores but there is one in Newport, Isle of White.’