Shopping at night for reduced food

Squirrel85

It is so worth it! My fam wouldn't eat meat if i didn't do it. I have waited 3 hours for food to be reduced on extreme occasions. All the supermarkets do it at different times. My local asda do half price at 3-4pm and then all meat a pound later on in the evening. Tesco used to be about 7.30pm. I find i can do it once a months and if i have a good day I'm in meat for a while.

It has taught me to cook with different meats - as it is pot luck what is available. I find xmas a good time, especially before the store is closing for a day. Sometimes it can be a scrum and the meat is gone before it's touched the shelves, so don't walk round the store - the best thing to do is stay by the reduction area until a staff member comes to start the reductions. This can mean a bit of waiting and having to swallow pride.

Most of the staff are fine if you are friendly and polite. If you get to know them they may tell you the reduction times and be more obliging. I've even helped them by sorting produce into piles on shelves or passing items to them - you help and it gets reduced quicker!

It's handy to go in pairs and then you can pass things back, as there can be a crowd waiting for reductions and you may not get a trolly in, there's only so much you can hold in your arms.

I get quite a kick out of getting chicken for 10p for example. I once got a leg of lamb for 50p back in the good old days. I'm afraid the reductions arn't as good now - 75 % is the best generally.

blossom36

Go to the larger Tescos on Saturday evenings, around 7.30pm and there are lots of goodies to be had - many people are watching the prime time tv, particularly now with Strictly or XFactor and so there is not usually a rush on the reduced stuff! :T

MavisTheMaven

It's made me very creative with cooking. I just make sure I have store-cupboard stuff in - rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, sack of onions etc. Then I decide what we're going to eat depending on what is going to be reduced. I even Google recipes on my phone when they're doing the markdowns and decide on that basis whether to buy it or not. We only really eat meat when we have guests, if you're veggie and you do this then eating is very cheap. Also it means I can treat myself to little luxuries, I love duck eggs and I love the expensive tofu that they sell in Waitrose. These are never marked down but I can afford them due to savings elsewhere.

Clowance

blossom36 wrote: »

Go to the larger Tescos on Saturday evenings, around 7.30pm

When I have done this there is not much there as the day was so busy. I find quieter days better to trawl for bargains esp Monday and Tuesday evenings.
Recently discovered some good reductions in my Tesco Express around 8.30pm (bread and veg).

Angbunny

I used to be a "reducer" for Mr T. The stock control people do the reductions after they have done their date checks. For example I used to start at 6pm and worked on the meat and savouries section. I would date check all the meat from 6pm and pull the on date stuff off into my trolley as I went and then around 8.30pm after I had done the check I would start reducing - the amount of reduction depended on the manager on that night - some would say 75% off, others would go up to 90% straight away.

Monday nights used to be especially productive as the weekend staff don't check the dates properly and the sunday night stock check is a count not a date check so there is loads of stuff not picked up til Monday evening. Tuesdays were always slim pickings and then it picked up again Weds & Thurs.

I used to get my regular people who would chat to me and ask if there was anything good and what time I was reducing and they were always polite and patient, but there were others who wouldn't even give you a chance to put stuff on the shelves.
It was a total scrum sometimes and we ended up having to be accompanied by security after I got my hair pulled and was kicked when I was trying to reduce stuff - it was a total scrum. I know people are after a bargain and money is tight but it's no excuse to act like an animal!
Moral of the story - be nice to the reducers and talk to them, they will get to know you and tip you the wink when they are about to start reducing and tell you where they are going so you get first dibs - if you stalk the reducers and act like a scumbag, they will literally not do any reducing and will keep the trolley out the back until they conveniently run out of time to reduce stuff - I do talk from bitter experience as in the end I used to just chuck stuff straight in the compacter (with my managers blessing) to save us all the hassle!

Prettyinpink2003

I went in to my local t's today at 3.15 (closes at 5) and noticed the regular reducer was just starting on the reduced section , we have 2 opposite each other 1 for uncooked meats and the other for ready meals, ham, yoguarts etc....
They were both quite full so I went and got the few bits I needed and came back, well it was like hell on earth people were stepping on each other ,squashing, arms on people's heads trying to climb on each other, the poor worker nearly had her arm ripped off for a few chickens
When people see those yellow stickers they turn in to crazy people ,I did manage to get a turkey crown, pork joint and gammon joint so that's my Christmas dinner sorted. :j

uk_american

I live in the city centre near a T Express, and it's pretty empty around 8.30 pm when I come back from town, out for a walk, etc.

This is on average what I'll find, 90% markdowns at that time of night:

That being said, I get mushrooms and broccoli every few days, so mr_uk_american is hopeful that he'll soon get a meal without it. :eek:

I wouldn't go to the trouble of driving to the bigger T's though, too much competition and fuel costs. However, am grateful to fill up the freezer or lower our weekly shop costs when I can find such bargains.

postcode

I've not found any huge reductions in meaty type products, but can usually find bread reduced to clear around 7-8pm in my local Tescos. Price varies between 11-30p generally, depending on the original price. Veggies are a bit hit and miss, have had some very lucky finds of 2.5Kg potatoes reduced to 15p, but nothing recently. Think mroe and more people are aware of the reductions, and with finances getting tighter reduced to clear food gets bagged up at a lower discount than it used to.

One thing I have only recently discovered is that my local M&S reduces their bakery stuff around 5pm (closes at 6pm). Have gotten a couple of mini baguettes for 10p each. Not as massive a saving as the other reductions (originally 49p each, I believe) but I do love them so they're a guilty pleasure for me.

LadyCoupon

My local Co-op tend to do the best reductions around tea time, so I try and call in around 4-5ish on most days to see if anything to be had. It is just hit and miss though, have found pork chops down to 19p at one time, but they don't seem to be as good a bargain like that anymore. I picked up a large bag of those red spuds yesterday for 49p and 2 large bags of carrots for 25p each.

Not as good as my shop in Morrisons last Sunday (this was afternoon though), just under £30 of shopping for £3, everything was down to either 9p or 15p. There was quite a bit of stuff, the man that was there before me, had mounds of stuff in his trolley, luckily he left so some others could get a look in.

I always stand back and wait for my turn to try and have a look, but some people just don't let you in, even if there are things sitting there on the shelf that they don't want, you have to keep asking, could you pass that over please, cause you just can't get close enough to see sometimes.

topsy73

Another waitrose goody yesterday eve around 6.15! Got two posh pizzas, a curry, 6 rolls, 4 yogurts and an egg mayo sandwich. The till assistant looked a wee bit surprised when total cost was 16p! She then told me that the pizzas were buy one get one free! I knew this! Thing is with waitrose, if you get reduced stock which is on a deal they give you the discount...therefore these pizzas were normally £4 (I would never pay that for a pizza!) however reduced to 99p they then gave me the next one at a reduction of £4! I am looking forward to a day when they pay me for my shopping! My DH wants to buy a nice bottle of whisky from there but wants to find a few deals to get the price down! That's our next challenge?