Shoppers looking to save money on their weekly grocery shop have been told the exact times to find yellow sticker deals at major UK supermarkets. The discounts, which apply to products nearing their best-before dates, cover everything from bakery items to milk, dairy, vegetables, and fruit. With cost-of-living pressures continuing to affect households, these reductions offer a way to cut spending on daily essentials while also helping to prevent food waste.
Popular deals website Hotukdeals has revealed the best times to visit each major supermarket to score discounted food items, based on crowdsourced insights from its members, supplemented with additional insights from the site.
Best Times for Yellow Sticker Discounts by Supermarket
According to the findings, Tesco makes small cuts at around 8-10am, with the deepest reductions made at approximately 7pm. Express stores often mark down earlier, around 4pm. Asda's main round of cuts happens at around 7pm, with little left after 9pm. Sainsbury's makes a small cut around 1pm, with the main round of discounts at around 7pm.
Morrisons starts cuts from about 5pm, with steeper reductions into the evening. Waitrose discounts items throughout the day on the day of expiry, with a final, bigger round of reductions one to two hours before close. Co-op applies rolling cuts through the day, with the biggest around an hour before close, and bakery items reported as being at least half price from 6pm onwards.
Red and Orange Sticker Patterns at Discount Supermarkets
Aldi uses red stickers, with one round at opening (around 7-8am) and further discounts throughout the day and before closing. Lidl uses orange stickers, following the same pattern as Aldi, sometimes even earlier. M&S makes a cut in the morning, with a bigger one early afternoon, and the steepest reductions about 30 minutes before close.
Ben Smye, consumer expert at Hotukdeals, said: “Supermarkets don’t release ‘official’ times; they make reductions every day, but there are some clear patterns.” He added: “While it can differ store-by-store, the most reliable time to visit is towards the end of the day. If I had to generalise, I would say 4-8pm is the ‘golden window’ for finding reduced items. But supermarkets do apply discounts throughout the day, so you may still be able to find bargains if you’re visiting in the morning or just after lunchtime, too.”
Sunday Evening Best for Consistent Reductions
Mr Smye noted that none of the estimated times are official company policy, and it is “down to the local store manager and what's left on the shelves”. He also said that Sunday evening “tends to be the best time of the week for consistently finding reduced stock”.
