Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt

SuperNashwan · 19 April 2007 at 6:32AM

This might be stating the obvious but if there's a new store near you they're more likely to have reduced items and bigger reductions. I used to work at a brand new Waitrose store and there was a significant (and expected) wastage problem for many months while staff got up to speed. I know I got some ridiculous stuff off the staff shopping for 10p (champagne flutes, packs of batteries) and initial reductions on the shop floor tended to be at least 50%.

Beautiful_smile! · 19 April 2007 at 11:21AM

alecc wrote: »

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!!

I used to get this bargains, where £2.99 +£2.99 (-£2.99) reduced to 0.70p, therefore 0.70 +0.70 (-£2.99) in co-op :T (never at Tescos, where you may end up paying as much for 'out of date stuff' than bying the in-dated items), but now they have changed the way the same as they do at Tescos, where they are not taken away the normal reduction, therefore, you may end up paying as much for 'out of date' stuff.

:mad:

umami · 19 April 2007 at 1:46PM

On 2 occasions I have had to take back reduced items because it was well past the date I bought it.One was cheese and it a week expired from the date I bought it.As I was in a hurry I just took it.Another time it was coleslaw and again the date was the day before I bought it.
The asda store just apologised for the cheese and gave me my money back and she then proceeded to page provisions.
As for the coleslaw again it is asda, the customer service person gave me doubled what I paid for, after I said it shouldn't be sold.She also apologised.
It seems to me that they (customer service) do as they feel like it.
I suppose I could take it to trading standards but I don't want asda employees to get into trouble after all we all make mistakes.

keith234 · 19 April 2007 at 2:26PM

great hints

laura1976 · 19 April 2007 at 4:41PM

I'm moving to permanent evenings next week and will be really paying attention to what goes down and when. I'll be there till closing now so will see the final reductions. Hopefully I'll be able to work out the optimum time to do my weekly shop and get the best deals..........I've got a lovely big chest freezer in my cellar to fill;)

allym316 · 19 April 2007 at 9:44PM

Beautiful_smile! wrote: »

I used to get this bargains, where £2.99 +£2.99 (-£2.99) reduced to 0.70p, therefore 0.70 +0.70 (-£2.99) in co-op :T (never at Tescos, where you may end up paying as much for 'out of date stuff' than bying the in-dated items), but now they have changed the way the same as they do at Tescos, where they are not taken away the normal reduction, therefore, you may end up paying as much for 'out of date' stuff. :mad:

Yep, same for me, co op gave me the stuff for nothing, although the SA did ask if there was any left in the display as they would have to check the price but it never works with mr T, Ive just got the bogoff for whatever the reduction was and unless its been seriously reduced, not been that tempted tbh

Best shop we did for reductions was the Saturday before Easter Sunday, an armful of beautiful flowers, (only just starting to fade now) and a freezer full of salmon, tuna and some meat for coppers

that definately stretched the pennies nicely

just happened to be in the right place at the right time
A x

joyinshoes · 19 April 2007 at 11:28PM

Look out for reductions on Raw Meat, Poultry & Eggs at TESCO.

Any animal by-product that has to be wasted, must be disposed of in a special process for hygiene, health & safety reasons, this is very expensive, so Tesco are encouraging us to try only to dispose of these products if damaged. If these products are on their sell by date we are being instructed to sell these products cheap rather than risk them becomming waste.

Disposal of these products is so costly that it is more cost effective to sell these even at only a few pence rather than pay to throw them away.

rebeccaj · 19 April 2007 at 11:49PM

allym316 wrote: »

just happened to be in the right place at the right time

I think that's the key to getting a lot of these reductions. I've had some corkers in the past but there never seemed to be much pattern as to what and when - just luck

green_horn · 20 April 2007 at 10:46AM

Which supermarket do you work for/did you work for?
Sainsburys Bakery
What times of day do you reduce prices?
Throughout the day, but mainly about half 5 til we close at 9How big are the discounts?
All instore baked goods go straight down to 10p, sometimes more if there is alot left, for instance we went down to 5p the other night.
What time is the final, final reduction (to 10p-ish)?
5:30pm.
Who has the authority to reduce prices?
A member of staff with a 'gun'. Generally they do just their section.
If a customer asked you to reduce something because it’s on it’s sell-by date are you allowed to?
If it's in their section then yes, otherwise it depends on the staff, but generally they will.
Does it vary if it’s a 24-hour store?
Don't know
And any other useful tips …
As said before, the staff tend to grab stuff and stash it, so be quick. And also, don't crowd round with your items right behind the poor person who is doing it. I know from experience that everyone wants all their stuff reduced first and shove it in my face. If you take your items that are going to be reduced, put them in your basket, wait patiently and ask nicley

caliston · 20 April 2007 at 1:25PM

I was in Waitrose yesterday and noticed a member of staff had left their reductions charts lying around

This was in the bakery section, but I assume it works for other departments too.
One day reductions (ie item must clear by end of current day):
First reduction 20%, second 40%, third 60%

Two day reductions (to clear by end of next day):
First 15%, second 33%, third 60%

Reductions seem to be continuous throughout the day, but from going regularly I've noticed the timing is something like:
6-7pm: final reductions on bakery, fresh meat/fish
7-8pm: final reductions on fresh fruit and veg
7-8pm: final reductions on delicatessen, cold meats, cheese, dairy, etc
Shop closes at 9... stuff starts being removed at about 8pm if unsold.

My best buy was a slightly damaged £3.49 blueberry tart reduced to 19p!

Great 'supermarket staff tell us your reduction policies' hunt

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