Spill the beans... Trade secrets: supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies!

TravellingAbuela

Well done - I am envious! Our nearest Tesco is 10 miles away so it's not often I shop there. I never find reductions like these in my local Asda or Sainsbury's unfortunately.

abailey54

Well done - some brilliant finds :T

I frequent morries and they are quite poor on fruit and veg - except on some (not all) Wednesdays when I can get some great bargains. I guess it must have something to do with when stock arrives or something

I used to get lots pies of near closing time for the freezer and made some great savings, but obviously that's not too healthy (I felt really sick near the end of one month when all we had to eat was pies :rotfl:), plus my local has started getting some quite aggressive people frequenting the reduced section so I don't anymore - most people are polite though

couponqueen123

grazzzz wrote: »

Due to a diving accident in 2010 i have been on a low income and due to my disability as it had effected my right inner ear so completely disabled my balance so have had to have brain physio to adjust and due to not being able to walk or exercise for i while put on weight so am currently having lots of smoothies and fruit !
Last night on the way home from my girlfriends we popped in to tesco and was in the fruit aise when a young guy started marking down the fruit he had collected it was around 9ish and he explained that at that time of night everything is marked down by 90% if the sale date was that day ! he was joined by his surpervisor and i got talking to them explaining why i needed it .they said it was hit and miss as what was there every day but tonight they had a lot
this is what i got
3 punnets of grapes 20p each
4 punnets of peaches 10 p each
Giant oranges in string bag 4 in each bag x 4 bags 20 p each
i pineapple 16p
punnet strawberries 20p
2 fruit mixed berry punnets 20 p
bag of lemons 16 p

There was loads of all the above and i stood by as he priced it all as it had just been collected from its prospective aisles.
She then advised me the deli was about to close so went there to find a cooked hot cooked chicken 80p and some fresh sliced bacon 9 slices which was 36 p there were lots of somossoas and fryed pastry things too but not for me

the supervisor was very helpful she genuinely wanted me to get the bargain stuff because of my condition and said to ook out for her next time and she would help me again !
i got over £30 for around £2.50

For anyone on a low budget it was an amazing bargain

if you have a co-op near buy they are normaly verygood i got to the one near me at around 10am yes am and its 50-75% off if its that day and 30-50% if its the next day this is across all the store meat veg fruit froozen adn household products my local is havign a stock change so is getting rid of lots of thing cheap i had head and shoulders shampoo and conditionor was £2.99 i had it for £0.75 if you look at some off my posts these s one about co-op
HTH

grazzzz

Thrillho wrote: »

Nice haul! Reductions are great but it is easy to buy too much as it is so cheap but it is just a waste of money if the food spoils. Will you be able to eat all that fruit before it goes off? Personally I'd freeze the berrys and lemons (quarter them first) and would concentrate on eating the rest first.

That is nice of the manager to help you out but you can't expect such bargains everytime you go. Sometimes there is nothing to reduce, my local Tesco is hit and miss for bargains. I usually get reduced veg from Tesco for about half/a third of the price but the co-op near me is much better for reduced meat.

i smoothie most of it so freezing the strawberries and berrys was ok and oranges are turned in to juice and the apples !
None of it will be wasted ! :rotfl:

Always_after_a_bargin

couponqueen123 wrote: »

if you have a co-op near buy they are normaly verygood i got to the one near me at around 10am yes am and its 50-75% off if its that day and 30-50% if its the next day this is across all the store meat veg fruit froozen adn household products my local is havign a stock change so is getting rid of lots of thing cheap i had head and shoulders shampoo and conditionor was £2.99 i had it for £0.75 if you look at some off my posts these s one about co-op
HTH

I second this, my co op is brilliant, always around 9.30/10 am I go there about twice a week and the bargains are fab, my freezer is full of chicken, mince, bacon etc, also manage to pick up some bakery bits reduced to use that day etc, not been at night as kids are in bed and with no one to watch them not seen the reductions but I manage to pick up 30 quids worth of stuff for a fiver twice a week and has taken my food shop right down and this is quality branded meat not basic items, I also pick up their strawberries and grapes reduced for the kids snack box that they have at break time.

squidgy69

i used to work for morrisons and the best time to go in for reductions is a sunday afternoon, about 1/2 hr before closing, also dont automatically go to the store dept for reduced items, if it is near closing time a lot of groceries i.e. bread, cakes etc will be where the tills are so as to catch the customer on the way out, during the week a lot of morrisons have altered their store opening hrs but department hrs may have to stay the same e.g if the store closes at 9pm the fresh fish dept may close at 8 so getting there at 7.30 will be the best time, also in our morrisons it was not up to the ppl who were reducing the item to reduce it even further, they had to have special codes of the dept manager or the manager of the store on that particular night, a lot of getting reduced stock is about trial and error, but the best tip i can give any1 for getting reduced stock in morrisons is early morning for fruit,veg,flowers, half an hr before relevant dept closes and 1/2 hr before store closes on a sunday.:)

grazzzz

Since my previous post i have changed the way i shop i have visited this store on many occasions over the last few months and saved a fortune i have got not only fruit but have bought 2 corn fed chicken crowns £1.75 . a joint of beef (tescos finest) £1.95 a leg of lamb £1.42 and a joint of rolled norfolk pork with stuffing (tescos finest)£1.65 fillet and sirloin steak and chicken breasts all at 90% reduction. i have realised its a question of timing and certain days to grab the best bargains

MavisTheMaven

Thrillho wrote: »

Nice haul! Reductions are great but it is easy to buy too much as it is so cheap but it is just a waste of money if the food spoils.

I go three times a week - it's 10 mins to a Tesco Extra on my pushbike. I review the state of the fridge before I go so I know how many meals I need to buy for, or if I need any more bread. I will cook certain meals depending on what the markdowns are - if there's lots of chopped veg I make it into soup soon as I get home. Bread goes in the freezer soon as I'm home. I don't tend to buy marked down fruit because I know I won't eat it.
Some meals you can easily adapt depending on what the reductions are, for instance I've never eaten samphire in my life until I got a pack marked down to 20p, but I made a very nice risotto with it. Risotto is one of those meals where you can bung most things in and it still tastes great, ditto curry.
It helps me to be creative with our cooking because the other bargain hunters tend to all go for the same thing - they never want any mushrooms, for instance, but if I can get 1kg on offer I then make a huge lasagna that will last me for four meals.

Richie-from-the-Boro

grazzzz wrote: »

since my previous post i have changed the way i shop i have visited this store on many occasions over the last few months and saved a fortune i have got not only fruit but have bought 2 corn fed chicken crowns £1.75 . A joint of beef (tescos finest) £1.95 a leg of lamb £1.42 and a joint of rolled norfolk pork with stuffing (tescos finest)£1.65 fillet and sirloin steak and chicken breasts all at 90% reduction. I have realised its a question of timing and certain days to grab the best bargains

dup ....................

strewth71

After seeing a fellow shopper in Tesco last week getting a small trolley full of shopping for £22 (which included an Indian Meal Deal for 2 for 92p!) I decided to go at around the same time this week - 8pm Saturday night and try for myself to bag some bargains.

Dragged my very unimpressed hubby away from his Fifa game, and headed off. This is what I got...

1 Lynx Shower Gel £1 (not reduced but hubby needed some)
1 pack of Pork and Leek Sausages 28p! Reduced from £2.79
1 Pack Chinese Chicken Kebabs 30p Reduced from £3
1 Pack Spicy Wedges 30p Reduced from £3
1 Hollands Giant Sausage Roll 10p Reduced from £1

Anyway - we went to self serve tills and did the business, at the end I didn't even look at the total and was about to pay with my card when hubby stopped me and handed me £1 and selected pay with cash...when I checked the screen it was asking for 98p!!! Turns out that because I had bought 2 party food items £1 had been deducted off my bill. I couldn't pay and get out of there quick enough before they collared me - not sure why I thought I was in the wrong lol.

We got there after lots of the good stuff had gone so will be going earlier next week Some of the stuff has gone into the freezer while we had the chinese chicken for supper. This was a trial run to see if it is worth timing a shop for the reduced items and I would say that we will definitely be going again.

Even hubby is converted after he stopped laughing at me making my getaway and has worked out that he is off work next Saturday night so we can go again. Feels like I clawed back a tiny bit of what the Big Supermarkets get off me in a year, I think that my food bill will be dropping dramatically in the future