Our friendly home shopping delivery driver Emma Eltringham has formed such a close bond with one of her regular customers that she's going to be a bridesmaid at her wedding!
Emma, who's worked at our Swindon Haydon store for ten months, has developed a strong bond with bride-to-be Amy Hill since she starting dropping off her shopping late last year.
Since then they've supported each other with healthy eating plans and weight loss recipes and Amy has subsequently lost two stone.
Emma, who's 35 and in Amy's social distancing bubble, said: "I first started delivering to Amy late last year and we got talking then. She told me about her partner, Lee, and her little girl Eleanor and how she was trying to lose a little weight for the wedding and because I've done so well on my journey we bonded.
"We added each other on Facebook and I said that if she needed any help I was there for her. She smashed it and has already lost two stone! The relationship between us continued and we met up a few times before lockdown, once for lunch and a girlie shopping day where Amy asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. I was absolutely made up.
"I never expected to meet up with someone or become that friendly with a customer, but we chat all the time, message constantly. Any time one of us is having a bad time the other picks them up. We've also got a joint Instagram account for the wedding celebrating our weight loss journey so we can continue to support each other promoting healthy meals we've made with all our shopping coming from Asda.
"We've amassed a nice little amount of followers too. It's lovely that we are doing it together because all of the other bridesmaids she has got are all Skinny Minnies so it's just me and her who are the Chunky Monkeys! It's nice that she's got someone who understands where she is coming from."
Because of coronavirus, the wedding has been put back to July 2022 and Emma will be one of eight bridesmaids with Eleanor being a flower girl.
Amy – who's been getting regular Asda home deliveries since 2018 – said: "When Emma became our delivery driver and we got talking we realised we had so much in common - the same interests and hobbies.
"We met up for lunch and FaceTimed each other all the time and she's become one of my best friends. She is such an important part of my life now and I couldn't do without her. She had to be a bridesmaid!"
During the lockdown, Emma has been making sure all her customers who were self-isolating and shielding were all ok, stopping to have a friendly chat with them at a safe distance.
She said: "I'd had a couple of little old ladies on my travels who haven't seen anybody. And they feel better for having someone to chat to. I've got a couple of customers who are disabled who have difficulty lifting their shopping, so I've said to them just give me a bit of distance and I'll take it into the kitchen for you and you can put it away at your own leisure. I had one guy who had a whole bag of tins and he would really have struggled.
"I love my job and I love being out on the road. I like the fact that I get to see different people every single day. I've got quite a few regular customers and I love seeing their kids too as they all like to have a chat."
