I shopped at Sainsbury’s, M&S and Tesco — one had the best yellow stickers

Yellow sticker labels have become a favourite way for shoppers to save money while reducing food waste. With the cost of groceries continuing to rise, more people are looking for discounted products to stretch their budgets further. Every supermarket has its own approach to reducing food nearing its expiry date, but not all of them offer the same shopping experience.

Over the past few months, I’ve shopped at a variety of supermarkets, checking out and comparing their yellow sticker deals. After bargain hunting, one retailer stood out above the rest for having great deals.

While I’ve found some great bargains in a variety of supermarkets, I keep coming back to M&S as my favourite.

One of the biggest reasons for this is how the high-end retailer organises its reduced items in my local store.
Instead of gathering everything together at the end of an aisle, M&S often leaves yellow-stickered products in their original section.

For example, reduced chicken is still displayed with the rest of the fresh chicken, ready meals stay with the ready meals, and bakery items remain in the bakery area.

It makes shopping feel much more natural and lets you browse for good deals while continuing with the rest of your shopping.

It also means I’m more likely to pick up reduced items that genuinely fit into my meal plans, rather than just grabbing whatever is left.

Seeing discounted food in its normal location can also help to compare quality and price properly with other items on the shelf.

I found in supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, reduced food items are placed in one or two dedicated sections, often at the end of an aisle.

Although this can seem convenient at first, I found searching through a crowded shelf to be time-consuming, especially when chilled meat, ready meals and sandwiches are mixed together.

I also found Tesco and Sainsbury’s to have a lot of ready meals on discount, rather than fresh produce like meat.

While M&S might not be the cheapest for groceries, even on yellow sticker labels, I did manage to find some great deals.

This included a yoghurt reduced to £1, a pizza reduced to under £3 and some sushi reduced to under £3.