Yellow sticker discounts are the quiet heart of frugal food shopping in the UK. Those little labels appear on bread, meat, ready meals and desserts when a supermarket needs to clear stock before its use-by date, and the savings run from roughly a quarter off on the first markdown to 75 percent or more when a store wants a shelf emptied by closing time. Shoppers who learn the rhythm of their local store can halve a grocery bill without clipping a single voucher. This guide explains how markdowns work, when each of the big chains tends to reduce, and how to use what you find safely.
How yellow sticker markdowns actually work
Fresh food with a short shelf life is expensive for a supermarket to waste, so every big chain would rather sell it cheap than bin it. Staff walk the aisles each day with a markdown gun, scanning stock that is close to its use-by date, damaged, discontinued or over-ordered. Most stores reduce in waves, and the deeper the wave, the bigger the cut.
- First markdown. Usually 25 to 30 percent off, applied in the morning or early afternoon while the item still has a day or two of shelf life left.
- Second markdown. Typically 50 percent off, later in the day, once the first label has not done its job.
- Final markdown. 75 percent off or nominal prices such as 10p, applied in the last hours before closing so the food leaves the building the same night.
The exact schedule is a store-by-store decision rather than chain policy, which is why one Tesco branch can reduce at a different time to the one across town. The trick is to learn your own store’s rhythm, then turn up at the right moment.
The best times to shop, chain by chain
Every branch differs, but shoppers have built a rough map of when the big names do their deepest passes. Treat these as starting points and adjust for your local store.
- Tesco and Sainsbury’s. First reductions often land mid-morning or early afternoon, with the deepest cuts in the evening. The final pass tends to fall in the last two or three hours before closing.
- Asda. Known for one big evening reduction, often in the final couple of hours of trading, plus a smaller morning pass on stock left over from the night before.
- Morrisons. A favourite among yellow sticker fans for frequent, generous markdowns, with many stores reducing early in the morning and again late afternoon.
- M&S Foodhalls. The last hour before closing is the classic slot for 75 percent off treats, especially on Sunday evenings before the week’s fresh deliveries arrive.
- Co-op and Iceland. Smaller stores with less room to hold stock, so reductions appear as soon as items near their dates, most often in the evening.
- Aldi and Lidl. Markdowns are fewer and less predictable, but the bargain bins of bakery items and discontinued stock can be excellent. Our guide to saving money on a weekly Aldi or Lidl shop covers the rest of the basket.
Two sweet spots are worth building your week around. Sunday evening is when fresh stock is cleared ahead of Monday deliveries, and the evening before a bank holiday or before Christmas works on the same logic. Arrive late, shop calmly, and let staff finish their pass before you judge the shelves.
Where to look, and who to ask
Most stores funnel reduced items into a dedicated chiller or shelf, often at the end of an aisle or near the back of the shop, though a few leave each item where it normally sits. Work the store in this order:
- The reduced section first. Check it before you shop anything else, then plan the week’s meals around what you find.
- The meat and fish aisle. Chilled proteins carry the biggest savings and freeze best.
- The bakery racks. Day-old bread is the easiest 50 percent in the building, and it freezes perfectly.
- The staff. Ask a member of the team when the evening markdown normally happens. Most are happy to say, and regulars swear by that one question.
Use-by versus best-before: the safety rules
Every yellow sticker bargain needs a quick date check, because the two dates on a pack mean very different things.
- Use-by dates are about safety. Never eat food past its use-by date, even if it looks and smells fine. Cook it or freeze it on the day you buy it.
- Best-before dates are about quality. Bread, biscuits, fruit and tins can be judged by eye and nose instead. A best-before bargain is only a bargain if you will genuinely enjoy it.
- Packaging damage is fine, seal damage is not. A dented tin or crushed cereal box is a legitimate markdown. Avoid anything with a broken seal, torn film on chilled goods or swollen packaging.
- Skip chilled items left out of the fridge. A reduced chiller is fine; a warm shelf of discount sandwiches is not.
Freeze your finds the same day
The whole game is to move a bargain from the reduced chiller into a meal before the clock runs out, and freezing is the single best move because it pauses the use-by clock on the day you bought the item.
- Freeze meat, fish and ready meals on the day of purchase, still sealed, and write the original date on the bag so nothing gets lost at the back.
- Slice bread before freezing so you can lift out single slices and toast them straight from frozen.
- Cool cooked leftovers quickly, within about two hours, then freeze in portions for future lunches.
- Defrost overnight in the fridge and cook within 24 hours of defrosting.
A freezer full of yellow sticker protein turns a £5 evening trip into the building blocks for a week of meals, which pairs beautifully with our recipes for £5 or less and the food waste guide.
Build a strategy, not a haul
The classic mistake is treating yellow stickers as permission to overbuy. A 90 percent discount on food you never eat is a 100 percent waste of money, so shop with a plan.
- Plan meals in reverse. Shop the reductions first, then build the rest of the basket around what you found, rather than hunting the ingredients for one specific recipe.
- Set a spend limit before you walk in and treat it like any other grocery budget.
- Know your benchmark prices. Half price branded yoghurt can still cost more than an own-label pot at full price. Compare per unit, not per sticker.
- Batch cook what you find. Reduced mince, chicken and vegetables become stews, curries and pasta sauces that cover several meals.
- Stack loyalty pricing where the app allows it. Member prices sometimes apply to reduced lines, and our supermarket loyalty schemes guide shows how the schemes fit together.
Leave some for the next shopper
Yellow sticker hunting has boomed since the cost of living squeeze, and the unwritten rule is simple: take what you will genuinely eat and leave some for others. A few stores limit how many reduced items one customer can buy, and staff notice trolley-loads disappearing into resale. Being the shopper who is friendly, predictable and fair is how you keep getting the good stuff.
Apps that find surplus food for you
If late evenings do not fit your routine, apps can bridge the gap. Too Good To Go lists surprise bags of surplus food from bakeries, cafes and supermarkets at a fraction of retail, while Olio connects neighbours and local businesses giving away food that would otherwise be binned. Neither replaces a well-timed trip to the reduced chiller at Sainsbury’s or Asda, but they fill the evenings you cannot make it.
The quick wins
- Ask your store’s staff when the evening markdown normally happens, then build one weekly trip around it.
- Shop the last two hours before closing, and make Sunday evening your regular slot.
- Check the reduced chiller first and plan the week’s meals in reverse around what you find.
- Freeze everything with a use-by date the same day, labelled with the original date.
- Respect use-by dates, judge best-before items on quality, and skip anything unchilled or unsealed.
- Set a spend limit and batch cook what you bring home.
- Use Too Good To Go or Olio on the evenings you cannot make the final pass.
Yellow stickers work best as one habit in a wider routine. Combine an evening pass with loyalty member prices, stack any voucher codes from the Freebies.co.uk dealstore pages for Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and M&S, and claim cashback on whatever still needs buying at full price. A freezer full of marked down food, a meal plan built around it and a handful of voucher codes is the cheapest weekly shop most of us will ever manage, and freebies.co.uk lists new offers every day to keep the habit alive.
