Local lingo takes over North East as Asda celebrates National Dialect Day

Local lingo has taken over the instore signs at Asda stores across the North East as the supermarket chain today celebrates National Dialect Day.

Asda shoppers at the company’s Byker, Hartlepool and Sunderland stores will notice that many signs throughout the store now feature local slang.

Examples include the switching of ‘bairn’ for ‘baby’ across the four stores, along with ‘kets’ for sweets and ‘netty’ for toilet. The two Geordie stores have also been provided with ‘Why aye man’ welcome signs, to give a massive local greeting to loyal North-East born and bred customers as they enter the store.

National Dialect Day is a UK-wide celebration of the unique and varied vocabulary and accents that make up the UK’s regional voices.

This change is being applied to stores as a trial for local shoppers, and Asda is hoping the switch to slang will cheer customers as they make their way around each of the four stores.

Richard Whitehead, store manager at Asda Byker, said: “Colleagues and customers alike are proud to be from the North East, a UK region which is known for celebrating its own customs and traditions – including a very unique vocabulary.

“We think it’s been great fun to incorporate local phrases into our signage as part of Asda’s celebrations of National Dialect Day, which seeks to recognise the rich and varied voices which make up the UK and its accents.

“We hope that Asda shoppers in these stores have enjoyed nipping to the netty and swinging by the store’s kets section.”

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