I visited my local Marks and Spencer Foodhall every day for a week to see when the best yellow sticker label bargains were, and the results were surprising.
Yellow sticker labels, often spotted in supermarkets, indicate items nearing their sell-by date. These vibrant labels are hard to miss, and the savings can be substantial.
This strategy helps supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and M&S minimise waste while offering customers the chance to bag a bargain.
Most of the products sold with yellow sticker labels can be frozen, including bread, ready meals, and meat. I recently embarked on a week-long experiment, visiting my local Marks and Spencer Foodhall at various times to discover when the best deals were up for grabs, and I was pleasantly surprised by the findings.
The timing of yellow sticker label reductions varies from supermarket to supermarket. However, these markdowns typically occur in the evening, just before closing time.
During my initial visit to M&S Food, I was particularly impressed that the discounted items weren’t all lumped together on one shelf. Instead, they were thoughtfully scattered throughout the store, remaining on the shelves where you’d usually find them, making it much easier to spot the bargains, reports the Express.
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On day one, there were several discounted fresh goods in the dessert section, but apart from that, most of the reduced items had already been snapped up.
The discounted items included a selection of yoghurts and a few ready meals, along with some fresh vegetables.
I also popped into the store in the morning, although this was on a weekend, which could have influenced the range of discounted items available.
When I popped in around 9am on a Saturday and 11am on a Sunday, I didn’t really spot any discounted foods, save for some bread.
This was expected, as supermarkets don’t usually slash prices in the morning from my shopping experiences.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a plethora of discounted goods when I visited at lunchtime, around 12:30pm.
Among the discounted items was a honey-glazed gammon, marked down to £3.50 from £9, which I snapped up for the freezer.
Some potato dauphinoise were also on offer at £2.64, down from £4.50, and some freshly prepared vegetables were reduced to £1.64 from £3.
I bagged all these for just £7.78 when they should have set me back £16.50 – an absolute steal.
Some yoghurts also sported yellow sticker labels as they were nearing their sell-by date, as well as some mushroom and chicken ready meals and a fish and chip ready meal.
For a sweet indulgence, I managed to find one of M&S’s new Cookie Cups reduced to £1.79 from £3 – a bargain considering I wouldn’t shell out £3.
I dropped by at this time thrice over the week and found this was the prime time for yellow sticker labels at my local store.
I’d highly recommend hunting for yellow sticker labels when shopping, as you can end up pocketing a lot of cash and cutting down on food waste.
It’s also worth noting that this was just one Marks and Spencer food store, and the timings of reduced goods can vary between stores.