Spill the beans... Trade secrets: supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies!

A question about : Spill the beans... Trade secrets: supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies!

Spill the beans... Trade secrets: supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies!

We're all for hanging around supermarkets near closing time to bag a bargain, but since different supermarkets mark down their perishables at different times, it's hard to know when to go. So, this week, we'd like to hear from any insiders on the staff at big supermarkets to find out when to go, what to buy and any other tricks of the trade that can help MoneySavers do what they do best.

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Best answers:

• The yellow stickered reduction are only about 10% off now ,on the 1st round of reductions & most items are to go out of date on the day now too .Its not worth it any more
• Last night, DP went to Asda about 6.30pm (due to close at 7, bank hol) and got a whole side of salmon fillet for Ј1.28 and 2 bags of salad for 10p. Delicious! We live off Whoops deals towards the end of the month...
• I send one of my kids to analyse the bread department for reductions, the other one to secure any salamis at the deli while I go to the reduced rack, and oh yes my wife is responsible for the fish counter. We then synchronise our watches and meet at the tills for a briefing. Life is a military operation. Oh and by the way I have trained each member of the family to scan for the red stickers...;-)))
• When I worked at Sainsbury's we have a policy whereby the system tells us a 'preferred rate' to reduce the item down toward (starting from about 15% off down to about 75% off). As for tricks of the trade, I would say just to be nice to the 'reducer', there have been many times where I have been asked to reduce further but have said no just because of how customers can treat you. The nicer the customer, the more likely the 'reducer' will give in and go below that 75% off margin!
• Got loads of bread in my local Asda for 5p each (including 2 garlic breads for 5p) about half an hour before closing on a Sunday recently - straight in the freezer when I got home, kept us going for about 2 weeks.
  I sometimes hit Sainsbury's on my way home from work 6pm-ish and usually lots of bread items for 40p - 50p.
  Reduced counters seem to be a bit more pot luck.
  Tesco don't seem to knock as much off as the others.
• From around February to April I was living off 10p reduced bread from the 24 hour Tesco where I work. Finished at half 6 on a saturday, off to the bread aisle and grabbed a loaf of kingsmill (Or more rarely an own brand loaf), down to 10p to clear it out, and then right into the freezer. Same on the Sunday when the store closed.
  Not been any the last couple of months, we seem to be running out of bread rather than overstocking it now, so they've not quite got the balance right. But its better than it was, there were so many loaves for 10p they were trying to sell off, its a waste, really.
• In my local sainsburys they have an area in each cold isle where they put the reduced items. But if you scan the bottom shelf all the way along you can often find a joint of beef or some luxury ham slices reduced down to 50p or so. Only usually get the good offers on sundays or bank holidays as it shuts at 10pm rest of the week.
  Yesterday popped in asda after work, saw lots of salad reduced at 10% off. Had to go back in later that day 8pm ish and all the salad was down to 5p! Bargain
• I love shopping in English supermarkets on a Sunday afternoon as this is the best time to get bargains with them shutting at 4pm. Rather than stand at the fridge where the marked down items are kept, waiting for the final reductions, I have a hunt round the various fridges looking for items they have missed and take them to a staff member to be reduced, usually by 75-90%. However, this weekend I was told that they cannot reduce items brought to them by customers as it is against the law so now I just tell them where they are and wait for them to go round and reduce them.
  The best bargain I ever got was in an Asda in Glasgow when they reduced 3 large meat joints, valued about Ј45 in total, to 3p!
• If you are lucky enough to live/work near a Waitrose, they have fantastic bargains at the end of the day - fruit, veg, bread and cheese are most consistent spots for bargains, but they occasionally pop up in other depts too. Also fish counters will often give you v good discounts at the end of the day if you ask nicely.
  We are on a low income and could never normally afford Wrose prices, but thanks to the red/white tickets we eat like kings
• I find waitrose best for reductions round here; depends on the staff member doing the reductions but on Sundays most of their fresh in store bakery bread is reduced to either 5, 10 or 15p a loaf/baguette and there is nothing wrong with it nor is it about to go stale. Packaged bread is also reduced to 10p and often it still has 2 or 3 days left before the use by date! They also reduce a lot of other items to 50p or less, what that may be and times when they do it can be quite random xx
• Waitrose is great for reduced fruit and veg, many a time we've bought stuff near the sell-by date only to find it keeps longer than full price, in date produce from other supermarkets. I don't know what Waitrose do to it but we've never had anything go off yet!
  A couple of weeks ago hubby got a pack of two fillet steaks from Waitrose, reduced from Ј8.15 to Ј1.61 so well pleased!
• Yes, my local Waitrose has massive end of the day reductions, but there is a regular price reducer follower, an unknown ethnicity lady, I think, who snatches everything out of his/her hand before it can be put back on a shelf/in a trolley, and stacks it in her own trolley - I've sen it full to the brim at the checkout. It's far too much for her own consumption, and my guess is she sells it on to friends/family.
  Frustrating for regular shoppers.