Where do you get your yellow sticker bargains?

Former_MSE_Andrea

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PARKENDER101

The local Tesco midweek YS bargains usually between 19:00 - 20:30. However I only buy if I'm already in there anyway and it's something I need that day or the day after (working away from home so tend not to store stuff for any length of time). There are HUGE savings to be made - I've seen Chicken Dinners (fresh) reduced from £4.00 to 4p regularly, Loaves for 1p etc.


However there are regular faces in there every night walking around with shopping trolleys full of discounted stuff who create a barrier around the discount shelf so I tend to just barge in and give them a taste of their own medicine. They are literally taking things out of the shop assistants hands before they make it to the shelf. One even asked the assistant the other night 'will that be coming down any more?' Comical - it's worth going just to watch!

PasturesNew

I've not seen good YS bargains since sites like MSE started advertising it and the well-off/middle classes made it their life's work to grab it all first

Fewer shops are doing it at all - and those where it is done/possible there's usually some beefy women positioned to elbow their way in front of you with their designer handbags being used as weapons.

pol098

I notice several people here being very critical of somebody typing in a code at the self-checkout giving a lower price, using words such as "theft" and "fraud". But the boot is often on the other foot; very often, over a period of many years by local Sainsbury's charges yellow-ticketed items at full price (this happens at other supermarkets, but, where I am, not nearly so much). If I buy two or three such items, it's very likely that this will happen; on one modest shop for about £25, six heavily reduced items were put through at full price, increasing the total bill by a large percentage, not just a few pence. It's very easy not to notice this at the time, or at all; I sit down after checking out and check every item on the bill (I remember roughly what should be discounted, don't have to look at each package), and usually end up at customer services for a refund. When the branch first opened they cancelled all payment for these overcharges and gave you the item, but that quickly changed, now you have to queue again to get charged the right amount. One moral of this is: if you shop somewhere where this overcharging is common, spend a couple of minutes checking your bill before leaving.

People who are perceived as abusing the system are severely criticised here. But supermarkets must make millions like this from you and me (e.g., my worst-case £5 in £25 approx multiplied by hundreds of thousands of people) rather than the pence someone typing in a code saves (but without affecting the critics). Why is systematic overcharging by supermarkets not judged harshly? Is someone paying 10p instead of 50p a criminal, but a supermarket charging £10 million (over many transactions) instead of £3 million just running a business? Do people not check their bills?

pol098

I buy yellow-ticketed items quite often. One advantage that I don't think anybody has pointed out: if you're willing to take a chance on something unfamiliar just because it's reduced a lot, you may have an unexpected treat, and often add it to your regular diet. As an example, trivial in itself but true, I once bought cheese described as "coastal cheddar" at a low price instead of the decent factory cheddar and disappointing-for-the-price "farmhouse cheddars" I usually bought; it was really good, and since then I've often bought this type of cheese (sometimes as "Cornish cruncher"). I've had plenty of successes this way, but of course, you may be disappointed; I've bought heavily-reduced very expensive items and found them not worth the low price paid.

DigForVictory

I work over the road from a small Waitrose & often pop in for a coffee en route home. I just happen to look at their reduced section while there & after 5, prices start to fall. A small tray of nice sushi for a pound, a big tray for £5 where I'd be shelling out £3 or £10 at lunchtime (well, *I* wouldn't but them's the prices) - I can be tempted...

I do notice that after 8 pm, my local Asda not only dims the lights but also drops the prices still further. Sure there are crowds around the yellow-sticker-gun-wielding staff before then, but after 8, if it's there, it's much more likely to be *pennies*.

At which point I really wish I had a bigger freezer.

mwarby

pol098 wrote: »

I notice several people here being very critical of somebody typing in a code at the self-checkout giving a lower price, using words such as "theft" and "fraud". But the boot is often on the other foot; very often, over a period of many years by local Sainsbury's charges yellow-ticketed items at full price (this happens at other supermarkets, but, where I am, not nearly so much). If I buy two or three such items, it's very likely that this will happen; on one modest shop for about £25, six heavily reduced items were put through at full price, increasing the total bill by a large percentage, not just a few pence. It's very easy not to notice this at the time, or at all; I sit down after checking out and check every item on the bill (I remember roughly what should be discounted, don't have to look at each package), and usually end up at customer services for a refund. When the branch first opened they cancelled all payment for these overcharges and gave you the item, but that quickly changed, now you have to queue again to get charged the right amount. One moral of this is: if you shop somewhere where this overcharging is common, spend a couple of minutes checking your bill before leaving.

People who are perceived as abusing the system are severely criticised here. But supermarkets must make millions like this from you and me (e.g., my worst-case £5 in £25 approx multiplied by hundreds of thousands of people) rather than the pence someone typing in a code saves (but without affecting the critics). Why is systematic overcharging by supermarkets not judged harshly? Is someone paying 10p instead of 50p a criminal, but a supermarket charging £10 million (over many transactions) instead of £3 million just running a business? Do people not check their bills?

Somehow I'm not sure that argument would stick at the magistrates (if it ever got that far). Surely the correct course of action is to raise the dispute in store, and if systemic raise it with trading standards