Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt

panavia · 10 April 2007 at 8:56PM

Co op supermarkets.
First reductions are done the previous night in our store at around 8pm.. this gives 25% off the following days date. The next reduction will be between 3 and 5pm, giving 50% to 75% off. Final reductions around 7pm 8pm, all stock with that date will go to 10p.
If there is a lot of any one product, the reductions may be greater, due to selling at a lower price, rather than hiking the wastage figures.

Damaged stock...ie torn packaging, will only go down by 25% in most cases.
Fresh food with damaged packaging will not be sold.

laura1976 · 10 April 2007 at 9:20PM

mrme wrote: »

The most important tip is this - If there a reduced items on a multi-buy you will still get the discount which means some amazing deals. Here is an example [/COLOR][/FONT][/LIST]Hot cross buns are on offer @ 2 packs for £1 and 99% of the time they have stock that needs to be sold each night. They are usually sold at 69p each but are reduced to 20p each. If you were to buy 2 packs you would pay just 2p as you would still get your 38p discount So if you see items reduced that are on a multi-buy promotion stop & work out the real price. THIS WILL NOT WORK ON BOGOFS - ONLY THE 2 for £2.00 TYPE OF DEALS. BOGOF items will simply be BOGOF at the lower price.

This is great to look out for! I have a freezer full of expensive pizza express pizzas and stuff because of this, they were on 2 for £4 or something recently but with the reduction and the multibuy I think I was getting 2 for 38p or something stupid, plus staff discount! Only thing I would add is if we or the customer notice at the till something is damaged ie sugar leaking or washing powder box torn we call a supervisor to change it for them. Quite often the supervisor will ask the customer if they would prefer to take the damaged item at half price.......we can just work out half the cost and enter it as a reduction.......after all you put your sugar in a canister anyway and you've probably got a soap powder box you can tip the damaged one into.

helping_hubby · 10 April 2007 at 9:22PM

MSE_Martin wrote: »

The very best supermarket reductions are on fresh goods that are going out of date, but what’s the best time to grab these bargains?
Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for? Tesco (Deli counter and Produce on sundays)

What times of day do you reduce prices?
We used to reduce the end cuts of meat on the deli immediately, these would be at 50% of the price.
On Sunday reductions started immediately and were only reduced by 10% maybe 20% on less desirable items. Then with an hour to go to close things would be reduced to maybe 50%.

How big are the discounts? (If the computer does it automatically, do a rough estimate)
As above

What time is the final, final reduction (to 10p-ish)?
I used to do this with 15 minutes to go.

Who has the authority to reduce prices?
The person with the reduction printer.

If a customer asked you to reduce something because it’s on it’s sell-by date are you allowed to?
Um, I really don't know. I'd always get worried I'd get caught out by a mystery shopper or something, so I'm afraid I didn't!

Does it vary if it’s a 24-hour store?
n/a

And any other useful tips …

klb_3 · 10 April 2007 at 9:51PM

Watch out for items reduced in Tesco which were on a multibuy. My local Tescos rebarcode the reduced stock so the multi save no longer works. More often than not it is better to pay full price and get the multisave discount.

However, Sainsburys don't rebarcode their reduced items, so you get some real bargains when the multisaves kick in.

Constantine · 11 April 2007 at 4:07AM

* Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for?

The one that begins with a T

* What times of day do you reduce prices?

Potential reductions (for fresh foods) are scanned from around 6pm the night before. The system calculates the times that reductions are required - May be reduced then, held for 10am or 5pm. Times are store specific but are generally around those times. Anything not sold at 30% is generally reduced again at 5pm. Further reductions as required from 6pm onwards.

* How big are the discounts? (If the computer does it automatically, do a rough estimate)

Again can be set by store, reduction values are generally 30% then 50%. Can be over ridden at Managers discretion to whatever is required.

I don't normally do fresh cakes at more than 15%...seems as soon as you slap a yellow label on, they are no longer bad for you and fly out

* What time is the final, final reduction (to 10p-ish)?

Depends on volume and store specifics. Hour before close as general rule of thumb.

* Who has the authority to reduce prices?

Reduction person largely, Duty or Department Manager for special circumstances.

* If a customer asked you to reduce something because it’s on it’s sell-by date are you allowed to?

If they had some manners.

* Does it vary if it’s a 24-hour store?

Yes.

* And any other useful tips …

Try not to be an idiot, it always helps. Reducing stuff is time consuming and important its done accurately, constantly pestering the person for another 10p off your chicken sandwich ain't gonna make you any friends. If you plan to be a Reductions Regular (every store needs them, they solve what is otherwise a problem

), it would help you enormously if the people you want to look after you don't all cringe when they see you...

Oh...and never, ever fight with an other customer over the last pack of chicken legs - It is not big, not clever, pretty undignified and to be fair, the Police laugh at you once they have managed to split you up :rolleyes:

ashfan83 · 11 April 2007 at 11:11AM

I worked in Tesco on the checkouts and it was a 24 hour store. At about 9pm the 10p bakery items would start to come through the checkouts, so I'm guessing they reduced them at around 8.30pm.

Damaged stock can get reduced any time of day, like the stuff you see on the reduced shelves - dented tins etc.

alecc · 11 April 2007 at 11:40AM

I used to work in a Sainsbury's store up until recently, and the best time to get reduced food would be about 20:30/21:00. This was because if things were going to be out of date at the end of the trading day then they just check chucked away, and the majority of this food isn't sold by 21:30 (which was the busiest time in my store) then it would just get reduced loads. I often walked out with at least 8 cakes and 3 loaves of bread for 50p/£1.00.

Find out what time it's busiest at your supermarket and go about an hour after, or 2 hours before it shuts. I used to judge busy by the amount of people in qeues at the checkouts.

alecc · 11 April 2007 at 11:47AM

Oh yes!!!! forgot, if look for things to buy that are buy one get one free, then the shop will owe you money. haha

many a time i had to give people money because the way the till works is for example:

1pizza - 99p + 1pizza 99p
(and then it goes -99p because it's buy one get one free)

so if it's reduced:

1pizza - 20p + 1pizza 20p
( and then -99p because the offer is built into the item code, so it still thinks it needs to take off 99p to make it a buy one get one free offer)

I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense, but it's true about giving away money, my manager said that we had to because it was our mistake not the customers.

SO LOOK FOR BUY ONE GET ONE FREES IN THE REDUCED SECTION PEOPLE!!

full-time-mum · 11 April 2007 at 11:51AM

I don't work anywhere but the very nice lady in Morrisions reduced some pots of daffodils when I asked - they were yellowish and had obviously been deprived of light. She reduced to 20p - I think they were originally nearer 75p - £1. They've greened up nicely now that I've given them some sunshine and a bit of TLC.

So my tip, is if you know your stuff, don't be afraid to point out the problem and ask politely.

Also, beware as quite often Tesco pile stuff onto the reduction area but they AREN'T reduced until they have the yellow price/barcode on them. The cynic in me says they are being sneaky. I don't think you get the buy 2 for £2 style discounts anymore on reduced items

KatieKins · 11 April 2007 at 12:02PM

I worked in Sainsbury's
We start reductions in the morning, working off a sheet telling us what's going out of date
The computer is set to 30% but can be overrided.
The more of a line you have, the higher the reduction. i.e. 10 cases of cucumbers - will be put to 10p each
In my case (and prob all sainsbury's) only the person in charge of the reductions on that dept can reduce. Till staff are not allowed to and it won't normally work asking someone off another dept.
Around 8/8.30 we started putting down to clearance prices - but don't forget - there is ALWAYS stuff missed, so keep a lookout on the shelf and go up and tell someone if you find something you can get reduced!
Sundays - clearance starts around 2.30
When our store went to 24 hours, the reduction policy didn't change

Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt

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