Letter: Supermarket till errors Asda be a cause of concern

Letter: A few years ago my wife went shopping at Asda in Shrewsbury with a friend who was a mathematical genius.

As my wife put the items in the basket, she calculated the price in her head and when she went to the till the till price was not the same as her friend had calculated.

They had overcharged by the princely sum of 2p and this mistake was verified by the till receipt, my wife did not want to complain.

However her friend said that she ought to because, on a greater scale, if 500 customers were all overcharged by 2p each in one hour then Asda would be making £10 an hour over and above their profit margin, which equals approximately £120 every day.

Furthermore, it might not be fair to point the finger at Asda alone.

Some of the other supermarkets could possibly be doing the same, making them thousands of pounds profit each week throughout their store chains.

This goes to show that our dependence on machines can be flawed.

Maybe mental arithmetic should be taught in schools once again.

Trevor Mytton

Shrewsbury