A LOCAL woman and loyal Asda customer has found herself unable to take advantage of the supermarket’s new rewards scheme because of her disability.

Sylvia Godsalve of Kingskerswell has been a regular shopper at the Newton Abbot store since its opening. When she found out that Asda was releasing a new rewards scheme in the summer, Mrs Godsalve was eager to sign up.

The loyalty programme, ‘Asda Rewards’, is available at all 633 stores across the UK and online. Customers can earn pounds, rather than points, by building up a Cashpot to spend, simply by doing their usual grocery shop. However, as the new system does not give the option of a physical card, it is only available to those with smartphones and access to technology.

Mrs Godsalve is visually impaired, and also has no access to or knowledge of tech. When asked, Asda was unable to provide adjustments to accommodate her, leaving her locked out from the scheme.

Mrs Godsalve said: ‘As a regular customer of the store for many years, I feel that there are many people like myself being discriminated against with the loyalty programme. I am not an internet user, nor do I own a smartphone as I am partially sighted.

'With modern technology, why can’t Asda find a way to appreciate all their loyal customers by discriminating against us app-less customers who are still spending at the shop?’

An Asda spokesperson said: ‘The benefit of the rewards programme is that customers can build up a cash pot on their app and which they can decide what to do with. There would be no way for this to be able to happen without the app.

‘The app also contains a list of products which customers can buy to earn cash-back, this list changes regularly so again it would be impossible for this to be something that could work without the app.’