I visited M&S every day for 1 week—this was the best time for yellow sticker labels

Yellow sticker labels, frequently spotted in supermarkets, denote items nearing their sell-by date. These labels are typically bright, ensuring they don’t go unnoticed, and the savings can be substantial. This strategy aids supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and M&S in reducing waste while allowing customers to buy items at a reduced price.

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 daily at varying times to determine when the best deals were available, and the results were quite surprising. The application of yellow sticker label discounts varies by supermarket, but these markdowns are often implemented 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 dispersed throughout the store, remaining on the shelves where they would typically be found, making bargain hunting much easier.

On the first day, there were several discounted fresh goods in the dessert section, but apart from that, most of the discounted items had been snapped up.

The discounted items included some yoghurts and a few ready meals, along with some fresh vegetables.

I also made a morning visit to the store, 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 anticipated as supermarkets don’t typically reduce food in the morning from my shopping experiences.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a plethora of discounted goods when I visited at lunchtime, approximately 12:30pm.

Discounted items included a honey-glazed gammon, marked down to £3.50 from £9, which I snapped up to stash in the freezer.

Some potato dauphinoise were also reduced to £2.64 from £4.50, and some freshly prepared vegetables were marked down to £1.64 from £3. I bagged all of these for just £7.78 when they should have set me back £16.50 – quite the bargain find.

Some yoghurts also sported yellow sticker labels as they were nearing their sell-by date that day, along with some mushroom and chicken ready meals and a fish and chip ready meal.

For a sweet indulgence, I managed to snag one of M&S’s new Cookie Cups, reduced to £1.79 from £3 – a steal considering I wouldn’t shell out £3.

I dropped by at this time three times over the week and found this was the prime time for yellow sticker labels at my local store.

I’d strongly recommend hunting for yellow sticker labels when shopping, as you can end up pocketing a lot of cash and curbing food waste. It’s also crucial to bear in mind that this was merely one Marks and Spencer food store, and the timings of reduced goods can vary between stores.