Exact time you may discover yellow-sticker reductions in Aldi, Lidl, Asda and Tesco

It’s always great when you find yellow-sticker reduced food in supermarkets as you can bag a whole trolley full of groceries for a few pennies or pounds. But how do you beat the rush and make sure you get to the bargains before anyone else?

The secret is that there are different time each shop puts out reduced food – and if you know when you need to be there you can be waiting for the discounts. Chains will slap yellow, or sometimes red, labels on their food to show they want to sell them fast – usually because they only have a few days left before they hit their sell-by date.

Some will cut the price of food because the packaging has been damaged. But different supermarkets will put their bargains out at different times, meaning the savviest shoppers bag the best bargains. Consumer champions at Which? contacted the biggest brands to get advice on when is the cheapest time to shop.

This is when you should head to shops including Aldi, Lidl, M&S and Sainsbury’s if you want to find the most yellow-label bargains.

Marks and Spencer

M&S says the times at which items are reduced varies by store, but are likely to be near to the time the store closes.

Aldi

Aldi marks down perishable products like bread, meat, fruit and vegetables by either 30% or 75% on their last day of shelf life before stores close, and gives a 30% discount on groceries such as cereal, pasta and tinned food if it deems the packaging imperfect.

Asda

Asda said yellow stickers are usually applied to items twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening.

Lidl

Lidl says employees make reductions first thing in the morning and then a few hours before closing, but can opt to do so throughout the day.

Waitrose

There aren’t specific times when their employees apply ‘yellow sticker’ price cuts.

Tesco

Money saving blogger Naomi Willis on SkintDad said: “Tesco reductions start towards the end of the day on fresh meat, fish, fruit, veg and bakery items. Tesco reduction times seem to vary from store to store. After having shopped in a few different stores I found the discounts earlier in the day are usually naff and I’ve only been able to get a few pennies off.

“The later in the evening you can shop, the more chance a 50% off discount, or more. It’s best to go after 8 pm or around 30 minutes before smaller stores close.”

Sainsbury’s

Naomi said: “You should be able to find some discounts just after lunchtime when they start reducing the food. The best time to go is around 7pm to your local Sainsbury’s store as that’s when the majority of yellow stickers will get put on food.”

Morrisons

Naomi said: “Try from around 5 pm for reductions of around 75% off. If there is any food left from 8pm onwards food could be sold for pennies.”

Co-op

Naomi said: “I found you can get discounts for up to 75% off the original price.”