Best time to get supermarket reductions

DCFC79

It depends on the store and the person doing the reductions plus the day

gemmacarolyn

Went to our local Tesco today and they were reducing the fruit and veg at about 5pm: 15p for mushrooms, 25p for a big bag of oranges, 10p for chillies, 12p for a bag of potatoes. Good luck in finding some bargains!

shewhoguards

My Tesco knocks all reductions down to 10% of price at 3PM on Sundays (I've been using this to get salad for about 7p for WEEKS now)

jenniewb

I have found it varies between brand but not so much per store.

Sainsburys take off like 10p, if your lucky 20p, at around 1pm then again take off about 25% at around 6pm and at 8pm up to 50%, or £1 (whatever is cheapest and they can get away with) at 9 or 10pm (dependins on staff and shifts I think) can take off 75%. After 11pm the stuffs gone from the shelf, probably for health and safty.

Tescos tends to do things by percentage, this depends on how the guy with the machine is feeling. It can be 10% then 30% then 50% -not sure on the times for this as I don't think I have been to Tescos before 7pm but just see foods marked down at this as I visit. At 8pm iot goes down some more, and then again at 10pm, (though some just mark down at 9pm and don't do anything at either 8pm or 10pm.) At the latest time slot its normally 75% or 90% in some stores- again, depends on how the guy with the machine feels-

But remember, the staff are also shoppers there too: I have one in a store near me at Tescos Lewisham, he wont mark down any fruit and veg that he wants but will mark everything else down, then waits until his shift is over and gets his mate to mark down the lot for pennies- so its open to abuse! my best advice is to become best friends with the staff and don't go to the same supermarket every day.

Also, can depend on how many staff are free. I have been to sainsburys before when they just don't have any staff so just don't mark anything down! This drives me mad as they have the staff to take all the end of date food off the shelves come 11pm, even the staff to put it in a dedicated area before 6pm or 8pm's marking down times, but not the staff to mark it down! Even if there are loads of us asking or just me asking.

Asda do marking down at around 8pm for bread at the latest time, before then I don't know. At 10pm all the marked down food has been taken off the shelves by staff. Think they start to mark down bread to 10p at around 8pm? before then it does get marked down, but again, not sure on the exact times.

I think I heard or read somewhere that either Lidl or Aldi (not sure which!) outsa all the end of date food on a shelf at a certain time and customers are just allowed to have it for free! they say a max of 5 itesm or something like that. Not sure if thats an Urban myth or not.

TOP TIP! Do not, however tempting it is, hoard food to be marked down in your basket and then go wait till the marking down man/women comes around and ask for things to be marked down- IT WILL NOT GET MARKED DOWN! stores have told thier staff not to mark down food unless its still on the shelf. It means if you want something and you see its not been marked down, you jsut leave it on the shelf and then wait till the marking down guy comes around and give everyone else who tries to grab it evil eyes !!- or just say to them nicely that you "had been waiting since 7pm for that..." (sad but true- I also have not enough money to spend on food!!)

It also means its a snatch and grab fiasco when it comes to the final marking down time- if you can hold on that long- and dont think that just because you have waited, they will mark stuff down, every store I have visited have trained staff, not just any staff, even managers have told me they are not trained to mark down (??!) and if they just don't have the staff in, or the machine is playing up or whaever, they will simply throw food away. Yup, have sen it happen, a whole three massively long shelves of sandwiches thrown into a crate to be binned. They wouldn't even let us have them for free

Its also worth asking in the store at customer services. Some do have set reduction times, but with others it will depend on the staff members time table/when they take thier break.

BTW, these are all times I have found for where I live in South East London, it may well vary from place to place as I have not ever shopped outside London before.

sam84uk

I work night shifts at Asda and we tend to have a few shelves full of "Whoops" dry grocery items (tins, cereals, juices, toiletries etc) by around 7am.

Our store is open 24 hours and it's usually the night staff that remove any slightly damaged (dented, battered packaging) items from the shelves. A checkout colleague then reduces them usually by at least half (unless it's alcohol and then they don't seem to be as generous with the reduction but it tends to be about a third off) and they're put on the shelf by the end of the night shift (6-7am).

If the items are on a promotion then they'll be reduced by half of the promotion price usually.

The general rule of thumb is that if the packaging is damaged on the outside but the item(s) inside are in their own packaging and are undamaged then they'll be reduced.

Good times to keep an eye out are after in-store events or promotions have just finished (i.e. Halloween, Asda's Baby Event) when they still have a fair amount of stuff to shift that was already on promotion, it's likey to be reduced further.

FlyingDutchman

Hey jenniewb, you must be unlucky with your Sainsbury's as mine always seems to mark at least a £1 off and most of the time reduce to half price.

I've had scrummy Pizza Express and Taste The Difference pizzas for no more than £2 each, reduced from over £4. I usually pick up the Champney's prepared meals for £1.50 - OK, not that healthy but delish all the same.

I know what times they do the reducing in Sainsbury's now - there's usually stuff available as early as 11am - so I aim to get there just after and dive in!

Also, quite sad I know, but sometimes I follow the woman around who's reducing and pick things from her cart before they are put out! This saves the agonising wait and means I get to pick the choice stuff. It also means I don't have to fight with the pensioners as the competition can be quite fierce at times! LOL!

The only bugbear I have with Sainsbury's is they don't always put ALL the reduced items in one spot. Yesterday there was the odd item still sitting alongside its full priced equivalent, so it's worth scouting around if you're looking for something particular rather than just budget shopping.

Finally, don't forget to check the bread section for reduced cakes and the dessert section for the ever reduced, it appears, custard tarts.

Asda's don't appear to have anything worth getting in the reduced section but then I do shop early on a Saturday morning so I doubt there's anything reduced at that time!

cybervic

gemmacarolyn wrote: »

Went to our local Tesco today and they were reducing the fruit and veg at about 5pm: 15p for mushrooms, 25p for a big bag of oranges, 10p for chillies, 12p for a bag of potatoes. Good luck in finding some bargains!

My local tesco had LOADS of vegetable reducing done to 20% of their original prices on Saturday evening around 17.30~18.00. Another 24Hr Tesco a bit further away has reduced fruits & Vegs in the morning.

ThinkingOfLinking

FlyingDutchman, I have had scallops for 50p from Asda and duck fillets for £1.26 so it IS worth trying Asda.

calleyw

It really depends on the store what reductions and when. You just have to keep popping in at different times.

One of my local sainsburys have changed the main reduction time to about 6.30 ish. Think that did to confuse people. As normally you can't get near it because of the regulars.

last night I picked wraps for 10p and went through at BOGOF:D and I bought 4 organic kiwi's for 10p as well as curly head of lettuce for 10p. Pineapple pre-cut down to 10p from over £2.00. I also got got half a doz eggs for 40p and they where free range and blue :eek:but where about £1.99 but of course have another 7 days on them. I picked up a few ready meals for between 30-40p. These are for my husband when he as at home alone and needs a hot meal. Spent £2.10 and came out with 2 carrier bags full.

My best ever was a few months ago when I got two £12 ish lumps of beef for 70p and a pork joint for 50p. And 4 butcher selection quarter pound burgers that where £2.99 down to 25p.

It is just the luck of the draw. I could not rely on it feed me all week. But it does allow me to stock up my freezer with bread and bits and pieces. And get fruit and veg cheaper.

Yours


Calley

earthmother

My Co-op tends to reduce the fruit, veg and pre-packed bakery in the mornings (50%), the chill cabinets early afternoon (50% again), and the fresh bakery and second reductions in the evening (often to pennies). Tins etc turn up at all sorts of times, but are never reduced by as much so don't move that quickly either. Multibuy offers tend to work too - when they were last on a '2for' deal, I was regularly getting 2 twin packs of fresh cream eclairs for 1p.

Works quite well on a school day (especially when there's Beavers/Football after) as I can easily be walking past at all three times - don't think I've paid full price for a loaf of bread for over a month now, not forgetting the other bargains I get