Great 'supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies' Hunt

MookieSnuffles · 24 February 2010 at 1:49PM

Hey guys,
hoping this will help someone else out, I work in the bakey of my local asda store.
Fresh Cream Cake reductions are done between four pm and five thirty pm, they are normally kept in the cream cake chiller cabinet or moved to the front of store chiller cabinet with other chilled reductions, these items normally go really quickly so are normally only reduced once, if there is a lot of reductions for the day after some of them will be reduced also (but will not be reduced again that day). Not all products on the fresh cakes are suitable for home freezing, best to check label.
Bought-in-bread, (hovis, warbutons, mr kipling ect) are normally taken off the shelves between two pm and five pm, this is done earlier as there is a larger volume of stock and it takes longer to manually check, these items are then put on a stand at the bakery or moved to the front of the store. First reduction on these items are have between 25% - to 50% off, the system works out how much reduction to give these items by the number of that particular item, so if there is a large amount of tin brown, then there will be more of a reduction.
In-store bakery items are reduced between five and six pm, certain products such as crusty rolls are reduced every day as they only have a one day shelf life on our shelves. Again first reductions are between 25% and 50%.
Instore and Bought-in is then taken to the front of store and between Six-thirty and Seven for second reductions, along with french sticks which are reduced before seven-thirty.
Each reduction after first is normally taken down by another 50% so if product was 53p after first reduction its then 32p second reduction would then be 16p third would then 8p.
Some collegeages will manually override the system and take everything down to 5p on third reductions, others use the system for fourth and fifth reductions so what's left eventually will go down to a penny.
What's left of reductions is taken off the floor at nine pm, I believe for the rest of the store it's 10pm. I always try to explain to customers that its worth grabbing bakey as most of it is freezable! Yay! :T
There has been word that there will be a new system being implemented soon around stores that will make this easier for staff instead of manual checking, which I believe will help immesely but Im not sure how this will effect times of reductions and how much they are reduced by.
We always go by the sell-by date for reductions, or for our instore bakery there is only one date on the item. Our made-in store bread can be frozen for 3 months, Im not sure about the bought-in.
I really hope this helps.

Mookie x

MookieSnuffles · 24 February 2010 at 1:51PM

Oooo!
Forgot to add that Sundays nearly all bakery reductions will have been reduced by two - two thirty pm, and are then taken down accordingly I think every half hour - 45mins.

Mookie x

Esoog · 24 February 2010 at 2:23PM

even if you buy it OOD they wont really care i have taken stuff back to Somerfield that was OOD,it was dried fruit i think and the rest of the OOD stock sat on the shelves for weeks after i returned my one(which peed me off as it was kids lunchbox stuff)...i got a sorry and a refund

We bought some Salad Dressing from Asda last week (lets say 16th) and when I got home realised it said Use By 13th. Girlfriend took it back the next day and the customer service staff were like "yeah, so what? You can have a refund" at which point my girlfriend kicked off and demanded to speak to the manager because she knew the shop can get in trouble - I have a friend who works in Tescos and told me they can get fined for selling out of date food - the manager was slightly more understanding and gave us a £5 voucher

rubberduck2010 · 24 February 2010 at 3:29PM

UB - for foods that are likely to make you ill if you consume them after this date, i.e. milk, meat etc.
BB - for foods that will not make you ill, but will be "best before" this date, i.e. may have lowered quality.

It IS illegal to seel Use By items past that date (ok to sell on UB date) not illegal to sell best before items past this date - so long as they are of satisfactory quality

Sell by has no legal meaning and is a tool for the shops to use for rotation purposes.

rubberduck2010 · 24 February 2010 at 3:36PM

Oh meant to add that it is Trading Standards that enforce this. I receive many complaints regarding this and often if it is a best before issue there is little that we can do as proving that it is not of satisfactory quality can be hard.

If you find items past USE BY dates, let your Local Authority Trading Standards know and they can check to see if it is a problem that requires investigation or a "one off"

cremator · 24 February 2010 at 4:47PM

I've been told at both Sainsbury and Tesco that when fresh bread reaches its sell by date it is sliced and "that gives it another day". It seems ridiculous to me but it is what they do.

fld14 · 24 February 2010 at 6:18PM

SilverLiz wrote: »

Does anyone get good food reductions in their local Marks&Spencer store?

I don't see many in our local Felixstowe store but I do see trolleys stacked with food taken off the shelves to be reduced. I asked an assistant when they would go on the shelves and was told that these reductions were for staff only.

Is this the M&S policy nationwide? If so - lucky staff but poor show for the customers who keep the stores open.

Unfortunately for those who dont work for M&S this is the case. Staff are able to buy the reduced Items. I had a couple of friends who used to work there and they told me that.

cagsd · 24 February 2010 at 6:45PM

rubberduck2010 wrote: »

If you find items past USE BY dates, let your Local Authority Trading Standards know and they can check to see if it is a problem that requires investigation or a "one off"

Ooh I didn't know that!
The other week on the shelf at Tesco's I found a packet of sandwich turkey that was 4 days past its use by date! :eek: but just found a SA and gave it to her, and explained that I didn't think it should still be on sale.

ceh209 · 24 February 2010 at 6:48PM

One of my friends used to do the reducing for Sainsburys (Bristol) and said she could technically reduce it to whatever price she wanted (if it needed reducing at all, of course)... hence she reduced things to 1p then bought them herself sometimes

fruitcake_2 · 25 February 2010 at 1:58PM

Recently I found six jars of "Organic Omega Butter" worth £6.99 and four bottles of "Good for you " oil £10.00, which were nine months out of date!! This was at a Tesco store. I am constantly finding out of date products, as I have a very sharp eye for detail which I use to find sell by dated items to get a great bargain.

Although the nut butter was out of date, when I gave it in to the SA, he just grunted and said he would throw them out. If they had a job going I'm sure I could find all the other out of date items.....

In general, I get told different policies according to the SA, some tell me they hate their job and don't care if things get thrown away at the end of the day, as they have too many other jobs to do. Some are very helpful and tell you the time that the items are likely to be reduced. I do in general feel sorry for the overworked, short staffed stores. But there is no excuse for throwing out goods that people are willing to buy at the end of the day for a reasonable price.

The local Sainsbury constantly has out of date items and sell by out dated items on their shelves. the SA's just throw them out or even put the items back on the shelves!

The worst case of wastage has to be the Marks and Spencer Stores.....they throw trolleys and trolleys of goods out. I was so disgusted that I had to ask a manager what their policy was, and I was told that it is a shame and that the staff aren't even allowed to take the goods home or have it at a reduced rate.....I really can't shop there at the end of the day....makes me sob.

Great 'supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies' Hunt

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