Supermarket End Of Day Reductions

mrsthrifty_2

aqueoushumour01 wrote: »

what time is it best to go to the supermarkets for these clearance prices?

stores start reducing at various times during the day but only taking a small percentage off and then taking more off if the items sit doing nothing.

Final reductions are usually about an hour or so before closing

notrom

We live equidistant from two Sainsbury’s, both about 15 minutes’ walk. One is large and more upmarket (Lee Green, south-east London), the other (Lewisham), more basic, has the advantage of being near the market where we can buy, for example, 14 or 15 peppers for a pound. Until recently the Lewisham branch was very tight-fisted abut reductions, reducing, for example, a £9 joint by 40p then a couple of hours later knocking off perhaps 50p; the bigger branch was much better at reductions. Now the roles are reversed, with excellent bargains in Lewisham from about 5 pm onwards and generally poor reductions at Lee. My point is that for Sainsbury’s at least, reduction policies are probably a matter for the manager’s discretion and that one cannot generalise.

Re buying vast quantities of cabbages at 10p each, I don’t believe people are that stupid unless they keep rabbits or are buying on other people’s behalf. But things like tomatoes can always be made into sauces, fruit turned into pie/crumble fillings, cauliflower cooked and ‘cheesed’, all of which freeze well.

One of my best ‘triumphs’ was some years ago at Sainsbury’s when they were selling smoked salmon and buy one get one free. On your receipt you’d see you were charged two full-price items then there would a minus figure equivalent to the price of one pack. Now, unfortunately, such things are re-barcoded. Then, the original full price would still appear as a minus figure on your receipt, even though the price on the packs had been reduced to £2.50 on that momentous day meaning that I was buying £4.99 pack of smoked salmon for 1/2p each (bill showed 2 packs at £2.50 one pack at -£4.99); all 16 packs froze perfectly with no discernable change in taste or texture. With something else sold and reduced on the same basis, Sainsbury’s actually ended up paying me to take away their produce! Sadly these bargains are long gone but one of your posters seems to suggest it still happens at the Co-op. Must try!

Finally, nobody has mentioned Waitrose. Some five years ago my partner worked late on Thursday nights and used to pop in to her local branch where she’d invariably come back with amazing bargains – joints of meat for 50p, Waitrose speciality breads that normally sell for over £1.60 reduced to 10 or 5p and still hot baguettes at the same price. Don’t know if this still happens – we keep meaning to visit at around 7 -7:30pm but as we’ve normally had several drinks by then and need to drive to our nearest, we’ve not tried it yet. Anyone any experience of Waitrose?

notrom

Oh, and as a ps, if you buy, say, a beef joint, and on opening it when you get home you fnd it smalls nasty and is off (highly unlikely - most sell by/eat by dates are way too conservative and, as someone else suggested, your nose will tell you if it's fit to eat.) you have the right to return it; even if foodstuff is on its sell-by date and heavily reduced, it must still be fit for consumption.

mrsthrifty_2

notrom wrote: »

. My point is that for Sainsbury’s at least, reduction policies are probably a matter for the manager’s discretion and that one cannot generalise.


Finally, nobody has mentioned Waitrose. our nearest, Anyone any experience of Waitrose?

yes I think you are correct and the policies are down to the manager on duty at the time.

Tesco where I am went through a procedure not long back that all bread etc went straight into a clear see through rubbish bag instead of being reduced

I cant comment on Waitrose ... the nearest to me is 25 miles away

Raksha

Yoghurts a day or two?

I've eaten yoghurts 6 weeks past their 'best before' and not felt any repercussions - I only chuck them out if they seem 'blown' or smell odd in any way.

Schamansky

Raksha wrote: »

Yoghurts a day or two?

I've eaten yoghurts 6 weeks past their 'best before' and not felt any repercussions - I only chuck them out if they seem 'blown' or smell odd in any way.

I've done the same, and with curds and cottage cheese as well. With most fermented milk products, actually.

Huns, Mongols, Magyars, Turks, Tatars and other nomadic herder peoples of the steppes have done that for millennia and still do it. Just trust your senses.

mrsthrifty_2

nice to see a few yellow stickers around tonight, hadnt been since last week

and had heard they have had a very busy week, must be something to do with end of month pay day and oh yes christ:xmastree: mas

managed to grab a few bits £5 joint of brisket for the slow cooker ...50p , a couple of quiche's 10p each, individual steak pies 10p each , mini sausage and cheese and onion rolls 10p a packet, cooked chicken and a couple packets of sliced ham 20p a packet, loaves 10p and 5p each, cinnamon buns 10p, 2 packs of four chocolate christmas cakes 5p a packet and a little princess victoria sponge birthday cake down from £4 ish to 50p , hot chicken pieces 20p a packet ..... :j

chatting to the reducer as she was checking shelves for anything dated today that had been missed we found 2 fresh turkey crowns one £35 and the other £38 :eek: dated for Monday ....... who is going to buy fresh on the 9th for christmas , to freeze at this price you might as well buy frozen to start with for £13 , will be interesting to see if they are still there Monday and what they are marked down to :rolleyes:

keep looking guys, the fresh christmas stuff hits next week with a vengence and the beginning of christmas week sees the start of multiple date reductions to ensure shelves of all items dated 25th and 26th are cleared by closing on christmas eve :beer:

coolagarry

notrom wrote: »

Oh, and as a ps, if you buy, say, a beef joint, and on opening it when you get home you fnd it smalls nasty and is off (highly unlikely - most sell by/eat by dates are way too conservative and, as someone else suggested, your nose will tell you if it's fit to eat.) you have the right to return it; even if foodstuff is on its sell-by date and heavily reduced, it must still be fit for consumption.

I agree with that but if it's something like beef or chicken then leaving it in salt water for a couple of hours will kill anything dodgy and gets rid of the smell. Then just give it a good wash and cook as normal. (Ok if it's really smelly then you're better not to eat it but wrapped meat can smell a bit dodgy when there is nothing wrong with it)

valk_scot

notrom wrote: »

One of my best ‘triumphs’ was some years ago at Sainsbury’s when they were selling smoked salmon and buy one get one free. On your receipt you’d see you were charged two full-price items then there would a minus figure equivalent to the price of one pack. Now, unfortunately, such things are re-barcoded. Then, the original full price would still appear as a minus figure on your receipt, even though the price on the packs had been reduced to £2.50 on that momentous day meaning that I was buying £4.99 pack of smoked salmon for 1/2p each (bill showed 2 packs at £2.50 one pack at -£4.99); all 16 packs froze perfectly with no discernable change in taste or texture. With something else sold and reduced on the same basis, Sainsbury’s actually ended up paying me to take away their produce!

I remember doing this a couple of years ago at Tesco when they were paying me £2.50 each time I bought two of a particular ready meal they had reduced. It was five minutes to closing time, they still had a shelf full of thus stuff and there were hardly any other customers there so I thought "sod it", shoved the last 16 packs into the trolley, grabbed enough cat food to soak up the money and took the whole lot through the check out for a balance of a few pence to pay. The grim faced SA on the till was horrified and wouldn't let me go with it all till she'd called a supervisor, who basically shrugged her shoulders and said "If the till says yes, no problem by me." The SA still wasn't happy and muttered away under her breath at me, lol. Was I embarrassed? No I was not. I spend thousands in that branch of Tesco every year so they can stand me a few boxes of freebie cat food now and again.

As an add-on...the ready meals themselves were disgusting! It's rare to find a product my Hubby won't eat, especially when he gets back from the pub, but these were that product. I think I ended up throwing most of them out, which I wasn't totally happy about. I don't like wastefulness. The cats scoffed every last crumb of the cat food though.

There was also the time I paid for a weeks worth of shopping at Sainsburys by also buying about forty packs of orange chocolate chip muffins that were reduced to some silly price but also on BOGOF. I left carrier bags full of muffins at all my friends' houses on the way home and still had plenty for the freezer plus several days of eating. To this day I can't think of an orange chocolate chip mufin without feeling a bit queasy.

mrsthrifty_2

a few yellow tickets appearing again today, lots of veg tonight in Asda but think this could be localised to me as we had Lidl open Monday [ and instantly reduced some veg items in line with Aldi's prices]and Aldi have their super six offer running

I managed to get a few cooked meat items £7 Wiltshire ham pack for 50p and then later a sliced Topside 350g pack for 20p and a 500g sliced pork pack for 20p plus several deli packs of ox tongue, turkey, ham on the bone, sliced topside,peppered topside and stuffed chicken 10p a pack :j

various danish pastries 10p each, christmas chocolate cakes [4 pack] 5p plus tiger tails 5p and french stick and rolls 10p , 2 Wilburton toastie loaves 10p each and 16 2ltr bottles of Coke @50p each, thanks to todays new offer of 2 x 4 packs for £4 :T