Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt
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Our Tescos fluctuate the times of marking down!:A Every moment is a gift. That's why we call it the present.!:A
Grocery Spend Weekly Challenge (Sat-Fri):£30.50/£400 -
Tesco reductions vary widely - my home store only reduces by about 25% most of the time, whereas my uni one often does a lot of 90% discounts (1kg carrots for 6p and similar).
I discovered a great loophole yesterday - sometimes Tesco reductions come up at full price at the checkout, in which case you can ask for double the difference refund at Customer Services. I got some organic bananas which were reduced to 11p but scanned at £1.25, which equates to a £2.28 refund (i.e. I got paid £1.03 to buy them :P). Obviously this is hit and miss as you don't know which will scan wrong, but makes it worth checking your receipt carefully!
Similarly and much more predictably, if they leave a special offer price ticket on the shelf after the offer expires you can use the double refund policy to get really cheap or even negative-price bargains. The price ticket says (in really small text) the date the offer expires, and if that's passed, the item is more than likely back to full price. For example, yesterday I bought some premium pasta which had been on offer at £1, usual price £1.47. Double the difference refund meant I got 94p back, so it cost just 6p.
Whilst you should always treat people properly regardless of the circumstances, it's worth noting that this isn't down to staff discretion - it's illegal for the price on the shelf or sticker to be lower than the price charged, and Trading Standards fine thousands for these sort of breaches, so Tesco is more than happy to give you a few pounds instead. I imagine other stores have similar policies.0 -
Please let me know:
- Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for?
Tesco Extra in Beeston, Nottingham - What times of day do you reduce prices?
Initial reductions at 10am, second reductions at 5pm. - How big are the discounts? (If the computer does it automatically, do a rough estimate)
On a weekday, initial reduction is 30% - 50%. Second reduction is 75%, always. - What time is the final, final reduction (to 10p-ish)?
Usually about 8-9pm, or 4pm on Sunday (we close at 5) - Who has the authority to reduce prices?
Anyone on a particular fresh food department can reduce food on that department, at their discretion. They aren't supposed to reduce stuff for other departments, as different managers have different, ever-changing policies. - If a customer asked you to reduce something because it’s on it’s[sic] sell-by date are you allowed to?
I always do, as it means I missed it, or it wasn't on the potential reduction sheet. - Does it vary if it’s a 24-hour store?
We're a 24-hour store, so we do out very final reductions quite late. - And any other useful tips …
Don't bug me while I'm doing my reductions! It really annoys me. If you find something, be polite. If you already took something just before 5pm, and you ask me NICELY to do it down to 75% for you, I will. Stick it under my nose and demand I reduce it for you will get you nowhere. I'm talking to you, "hat lady".
0 - Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for?
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banana-pumpkin wrote: »sometimes Tesco reductions come up at full price at the checkout
That will happen if the sticker hasn't fully covered the original barcode, and it's this exposed part which is scanned by the checkout. When you're sticking hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of labels, sometimes mistakes will happen!
No law is being broken, as you are being charged the shelf price. Therefore Tesco's "double the difference" policy won't apply in this situation.
However, if you mention it nicely to the checkout assistant they'll rescan the proper yellow reduction label for you with the manual hand-scanner, so you'll get the reduction.0 -
jumblejack wrote: »Our Tescos fluctuate the times of marking down!
This is because it's done by overworked staff members! Reductions aren't actually their priority usually, unless they unearth a massive pile of gradually rotting tomatoes or something.0 -
I used to work in Tesco and the reductions were done by a specific department; stock control. They were so sick of being crowded by people grabbing whatever they stuck labels on out of their hands and crowding them, they started reducing things by only 10% first thing in the morning, so by 7pm, it had all gone and there were no massive reductions anywhere.
And staff knew who was after a reduction; people who walked round and round the store looking at the same things. So they waited as long as possible before reducing them - after 10 hours working, anything will become amusing. You make people do laps of tesco for an hour - you win. You make them pay full price, you win.
Because reductions are such an unpopular task; people tend to go a bit loopy over them, they are left till last. It wasn't uncommon for 10 people to be stood round a chiller full of stuff, waiting for the bargains that were thrown away because nobody could be bothered to sort it out.
The sad thing is that the Tesco employee, like the one above, earns little more than the minimum wage, has a piss-poor company pension, is the victim of a very mean company policy on sick pay and maternity benefits, and yet he still sees the customer, rather than the employer as the problem.
Meanwhile Tesco reports bumper profits of £6500 a minute. I despair.0 -
The sad thing is that the Tesco employee, like the one above, earns little more than the minimum wage, has a piss-poor company pension, is the victim of a very mean company policy on sick pay and maternity benefits, and yet he still sees the customer, rather than the employer as the problem.
Meanwhile Tesco reports bumper profits of £6500 a minute. I despair.
Actually the Tesco company pension is quite good.
And my wage suits me fairly well; I'm only part-time, and I'm a student. I wouldn't want to have to live off it though.
But yes, we do play little games with the pushy, rude ones. The ones who are in there every day, stopping us doing our job with their demands.
Once every couple of hours I check the bananas, discarding any bruised or damaged ones. The way to waste loose goods is to print out a reduction label with 0% reduction, and scan that into the waste system.
or...
Put all the bruised bananas in a bag, and stick the 0% reduction label on it. These people just see the reduction label and go crazy; it's like catnip for them. So they grab the bag and don't even look at it. We sell all the bananas we were going to waste, at full price. They think they're getting some kind of fantastic bargain.0 -
The company's career-average occupational pension is graded as mediocre to poor.Actually the Tesco company pension is quite good.
Perhaps for the under 21, the typical Tesco wage of £6.61 might seem appealing. But for an adult, the pay is scarcely above the minimum wage.And my wage suits me fairly well; I'm only part-time, and I'm a student. I wouldn't want to have to live off it though.
That's nice. Is that something you were specifically trained to do? Is it Tesco policy across the store chain?But yes, we do play little games with the pushy, rude ones. The ones who are in there every day, stopping us doing our job with their demands.
Once every couple of hours I check the bananas, discarding any bruised or damaged ones. The way to waste loose goods is to print out a reduction label with 0% reduction, and scan that into the waste system.
The hardened money saver wouldn't fall for that mean-spirited sleight of hand.or...
Put all the bruised bananas in a bag, and stick the 0% reduction label on it. These people just see the reduction label and go crazy; it's like catnip for them. So they grab the bag and don't even look at it. We sell all the bananas we were going to waste, at full price. They think they're getting some kind of fantastic bargain.
It will just be types like the overworked single mum who is rushing to do her shop before school close, who falls victim.
Foolishly for her, she puts her faith in Tesco ethics. Every Little Helps, and all that.
The label implies reduced, she thinks, and the bananas are loose and tired, so they must be reduced, bless her.
Oh dear. What a mistake!
Meanwhile..
"LONDON (AFP) – Britain's biggest retailer Tesco on Tuesday (April 19) posted a 14-percent rise in annual net profits to £2.65 billion"
That's a profit of £5041 per minute.
Every Little Helps, indeed.0
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