Little Asda superfan Zakk's all smiles in his special green Asda 'work shirt’ – after personal intervention by CEO
Most youngsters want a replica football or rugby shirt or perhaps a superhero outfit – however, two-year-old Zakk North from South Yorkshire is such a big fan of Asda, that he’s become the supermarket’s latest latest ‘recruit’ after the supermarket-loving toddler was give two specially-made Asda "work shirts" with his name on.
It comes after his mum Zoe wrote to Asda to tell bosses that the Rotherham-toddler loves everything about Asda – shouting for joy when he sees one of the big green lorries or when he's told they're going shopping at the Asda Wath-upon-Dearne store.
She first got in touch by emailing Asda Chief Executive Officer, Sean Clarke, saying:
"My son loves Asda. We cannot walk or drive past any Asda supermarket without a huge shout out and wanting to go in. Even a passing Asda wagon gets his full attention – we cannot carry on until it's out of sight.
"I know this might sound like a strange request, but is there any way I could get him a three to four years green Asda-branded work shirt – the same as your shop employees wear? If this would be possible it would really make him happy."
Mr Clarke spoke to George Managing Director Nick Jones who arranged for two shirts to be made and sent them on to Zakk with a letter saying:
"Our teams quickly got to work and made not just one special Asda work shirt but two! (They know how important it is to have a spare work shirt to hand).
"I hope you enjoy wearing your special Asda work shirts as much as we enjoyed making them for you. You will be pleased to know that you are the only little boy in the country who has them – now how special is that!”
Zakk’s mum, Zoe, who’s 37 and lives in Wath-upon-Dearne with Zakk and her partner Rob, has been taking Zakk into his local store twice a week since he was a baby.
Zoe said: "Zakk was absolutely ecstatic when he received the shirts – thank you all for going above and beyond to make a little boy happy."
"When we’re there he just stands and shouts 'Asda!'. I don’t know whether it's the green colours that stand out to him, but he loves everything about Asda.
“When we're unpacking the groceries he's not bothered about the products – he’s more bothered about the Asda and the green."
Zoe said she wanted to get him something that said Asda on it for him to wear and play in – but she sent the email more in hope than expectation.
She said: "The response from Asda has just been unbelievable. I can’t thank you enough. When the shirts arrived Zakk looked at them and shouted 'Asda'. He put one shirt on straight away and started jumping up and down and waving his arms.
“He loves going to the Rotherham Living store too as they stock all of his favourite toys and we took him there after he’d got his shirt. He was over the moon to show off his lovely Asda shirt and see everyone else wearing the same shirt as him, he was saying ‘green, green, Asda’."
Asda colleague Ruth Golightly, who works at Zakk’s local store and worked with a local supplier to have the shirts made for Zakk, said: "We all had tears in our eyes when we heard how thrilled Zakk was with the T-shirts – it makes everything we do so worthwhile.
“We were delighted to help – we love requests like this where we can do something to please our customers, especially when it involves someone of Zakk’s age."
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