Supermarket giant Asda were forced to apologise today after they charged a customer a whopping £450 – for a loaf of BREAD.
Warehouse worker John Brown, 37, had visited his local store on March 17 to pick up a few groceries – which should have cost under a fiver.
He paid for his shopping on a debit card using the self-service check-out before rushing out of the supermarket in Wolverhampton.
But when he went to a cashpoint three days later to pay for a new car his bank would not let him withdraw the full amount.
It wasn’t until he checked back over his recent receipts that he realised his Asda shop for jam, eggs and bread had just cost him a staggering £453.19p.
The receipt – emblazoned with the motto ‘Saving you money every day’ – revealed the reduced loaf of Roberts multigrain advertised for 69p had set him back an eye-watering £450.
The supermarket have since issued an apology and refunded the difference of the shop – which should have come to £3.19 in total.
But yesterday John, from Heath Town, Wolverhampton, said the error had left him out-of-pocket and unable to pay for a £1,200 Renault Clio he had seen on Auto Trader.
He said: “I was gutted at the time , I had my heart set on that car but because I had paid £450 for a loaf of bread I couldn’t afford it. The guy has sold it now too.
“I only popped in to pick up a few items and decided to use one of the self-service checkouts so I didn’t have to hang around waiting in a queue.
“You sort of feel a bit rushed at those self-service checkouts so I didn’t really check the receipt properly as I left.
“Also when I was keying in the pin number I didn’t really see the decimal point, I thought I was paying about £4.50 – which seemed about right.
“But when I went to the bank to take out some money and noticed my account was well short.
“I knew I hadn’t spent that much money on shopping. I had only bought some jam, eggs and two loaves of bread.
“But it ended up being the most expensive grocery shop I have ever done in my entire life.”
The eggs cost John £1.50, the jam £1, one loaf of bread went through at 69p, but the other was priced at £450.
A spokesperson for Asda said the store would be offering John a full refund.
She added: “A system glitch meant that the bread was scanned at the wrong price.
“It goes without saying that we’re sorry for any inconvenience caused to Mr Brown.
“We have offered him a gesture of goodwill to treat himself on his next visit.”
