Best Time to Find Yellow Stickers
- SuperSavvySavers
- Mar 22
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
There are often bargains to be found at the supermarkets. Most supermarkets use the yellow sticker discount system, where by items that are due to go past their sell by date are reduced in price.
Knowing the supermarket's reduction schedule helps in finding the best yellow sticker discounts, but not all supermarkets discount at the same time! Some supermarkets tend to reduce early on in the day, then discount again early evening. Waitrose is a good example of a supermarket that often discount early then again later in the day. That said, we've seen half price chickens at Waitrose at 9am, so it often depends on stock levels and how much they need to shift quickly.
You'll often find yellow sticker items in Waitrose that haven't been reduced by very much, and you often think "what's the point". These reductions are very often found on items the DAY BEFORE their sell by date and the items will be further reduced the next day, on their actual date. This is particularly found on meat products and ready meals.
You can often find fruit and vegetables reduced in the mornings at both Waitrose Rohais and Waitrose Admiral Park. The amount of reduction seems to vary on the amount of stock they need to shift. If there's not that much, the discounts tend to be minimal, but when there's loads you can expect higher discounts with further reductions later in the day.
Waitrose do have dedicated 'reduced to clear' sections in both stores. The Waitrose Rohais reduced to clear area is by the milk fridge and at Waitrose Admiral Park it's by the meat fridges (opposite the chickens). Although you'll find some reduced items in the 'reduced to clear' section, you can usually find reduced items around the store too. In fact we usually find the better discounts on the shelves rather than in the 'reduced to clear' areas.
Guernsey Milk is another item that is often reduced at Waitrose stores. Milk is often reduced the day before it's USE BY date, and then further reduced (if there's any left) the following day. Bread is another item that is regularly reduced. Check the 'reduced' baskets in the bread section. There's usually reduced cakes and croissants to be found around there too!
If you're a cheese lover, you can often find a reduced bargain at the Waitrose Deli counter, so have a quick look there. We've often spotted Deli counter cheeses at up to 75% off.
Other supermarkets discount at different times of the day. Marks & Spenser for instance will sometimes discount some of their stock items early in the day (often around 11am), but sometimes they discount just after lunch. It really depends on stock quantities and how much they need to shift. We often pop in to M&S just before the school run and we ALWAYS find a reduced item or two! Again it often depends on the products being discounted... we have spotted half price flowers and discounted milk at 8am!
The M&S Town store closes slightly earlier than the L'Islet and St Martins stores, so they tend to reduce a little earlier. We've also had tip offs from staff in M&S St Martins that discounts tend to start around 11am, but the fruit is usually last to be reduced which doesn't usually happen until the afternoon.
Alliance seem to discount early in the day. They have a dedicated 'reduced to clear' fridge located in the meat section where you can often pick up half price bargains from 8am onwards.
We've also spotted hefty discounts at the Morrison's Admiral Park store with many items reduced to just 20p an hour before closing. They usually close at 9pm, so if you pop in at 8pm you can usually find a bargain. Other Morrison's stores including Cobo, L'Islet and St Martins, reduce during the day and further reduce in the evening, but it's not often we find 20p items outside of Morrison's Admiral Park.
If you're struggling to find a yellow sticker bargain at your local supermarket, next time you're in the store, just ask a member of staff what time they usually discount! Most places have a time of day they start to put out certain items at discounted prices. It's not a secret, and every store is different. There is no harm or shame in asking when they generally tend to start their discounts. It has been known for some supermarkets to deliberately change their mark-down times to prevent people queuing, loitering or harassing staff members around their usual reduction times. So if you suddenly can't find any reductions at the usual times at your local supermarket, this could be a reason why.
The ultimate best days to find yellow sticker bargains are around bank holidays when the supermarkets will be closed and need to shift their stock before they shut. M&S tend to close their stores on bank holidays, so always check their stores the day before they're due to close. Check the Town store first as it closes earlier than the other stores. We spotted bargains galore in there around midday on the Thursday before Good Friday 👍
Yellow Sticker Cookbook
If you're stuck for ideas of what to cook with all your reduced yellow sticker findings that you've managed to hunt down and in need of a little inspiration, the Yellow Sticker Cookbook might be just what you need!
The Yellow Sticker Cookbook helps you make the most of any random combination of reduced ingredients. You simply type in what ingredients you have and the 'recipe book' will come back with suggestions for you.
The Fight Against Food Waste!
Most supermarkets these days do at least try to save surplus food from going to waste with many supermarkets opting to donate surplus food to food banks and charities that help to get food to those who most need it.
Olio - Find Free Food Near You! (Available in Guernsey!)
OLIO is a free App you can download to your phone which connects local people with each other and with local businesses so surplus food (and other non-food items) can be shared, instead of being thrown away. Waitrose and the Co-op in Guernsey regularly donate surplus food to Olio via the Olio 'Food Waste Heroes' who collect the surplus food and list all the items on the App in readiness for other people in their local area to 'claim and collect' the items.
We've written a whole blog post about the Olio App which you can read here - How to use the Olio App to find Free food in your area.
Too Good To Go - UK only (not in Guernsey!)
Other platforms that help to combat food waste also include the Too Good To Go which connects consumers with surplus food establishments such as supermarkets, bakeries, restaurants, cafes, takeaways... The establishments offer 'surprise bags' or parcels, often at half price or less which are available to purchase through the Too Good To Go App. The food items are usually 'close to use by date' or 'end of day items' which would have otherwise been thrown away.
Too Good To Go is very popular throughout the UK but is not currently available here in Guernsey.
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