Have you ever witnessed the Tesco battle?

[7SunshineSeven7]

It happens in the fruit and veg section and in the fridge section.

The reduced stuff gets put out later on at night and its like everyone loses their mind. Elbows go flying, people start swearing. I saw an old man push into a woman with his trolley for some grapes. The poor worker putting the stuff out has a deep, harrowing look in their eyes as they try to throw the stuff down and get away!

It is insane. 10/10 would recommend.

I am Queen of the Yellow Sticker but I don't actively plan my shopping trips to coincide with mark down times. Shoving and pushing is never acceptable, and I've never seen people queuing for reductions to be made either. Don't diss the bargains though - we haven't bought full price meat or fish for months and my freezer is full of yellow stickered chickens, mince, posh sausages and beef.

Many years ago before Sunday shopping our local Asda used to reduce the prices on meat on a Monday evening. Mum used to send Dad and sometimes I'd go with him. The fighting got so bad that they had to stop doing it .

Also before Sunday opening, our local Tesco used to have a man on a microphone from about 4pm shouting out where the bargains were . The shop would fall silent waiting for him to announce the next reduction. He would shout 'Chickens reduced in aisle 24 ladies. Sunblest loaves in aisle 8' and there would be a mass scrummage.

I bet there was 49p lamb on the floor.

You need to visit our local village Co-Op towards the end of the day. Regularly lots of very good reductions and no fighting to get to them!

The Tesco Extra in the nearest town is rubbish though, they reduce plenty of things but by a few pence only most of the time. If something didn't sell well at £7.99 when it was fresh, I don't think pricing it at £7.49 on it's sell by date is going to help too much.

Its great. I tend to stand back and watch but my mum goes in for the scrum!

I do rather like the 9p bread in Morrisons on a Sunday afternoon!

but I don't actively plan my shopping trips to coincide with mark down times. You're not trying hard enough, get in there!

The shop would fall silent waiting for him to announce the next reduction. He would shout 'Chickens reduced in aisle 24 ladies. Sunblest loaves in aisle 8' and there would be a mass scrummage.

CHHARRRRGGEEEEE!!!!

The only dispute I've ever been in was when our local co-op refused - flat refused - to sell me an avocado because it was a day past its sell-by date and had somehow snuck onto the shelf. I know why and all but the thing was rock hard. It wouldn't have been ready for eating for at least a week.

They were immoveable about it and I 'lost'.

I have fond memories of living on a new estate, where they had put a little co-op on the edge. The estate wasn't finished and we were one of the first to move in. It took years for the co-op to get their stock levels right so every week I'd have a wander up to the deserted shop and get chicken for 49p and bread for 5p. The first Christmas was amazing, they had so much bread they had to give it away.

Thing is as others have said, the end of day reductions are the stuff which hasn't sold - I usually shop in the morning the local Asda appears to mark down by around 15% first thing for stuff which is up that day. I'd MUCH rarher get something we'll always use like one of those roast in the bag chickens for £3.40 instesd of £4 rather than wait until evening, find there's not much left - only "smart price" meat which I never buy or other stuff we just won't eat. It's only a bargain if you need it...

Having said that I have trained DH and the kids to search for yellow stickers and just after Christmas DH picked up a pack of fish fillets in tesco which had been reduced from £2.99 to 22p. And very nice it was too.

Our local tesco metro does the labels on fresh food on a Sunday morning. I popped in for some crumpets for Sunday breakfast and came out with green beans (we have guinea pigs) and fresh fruit for DS because it was cheap as chips. Everyone else there was buying newspapers and nothing else so easy pickings and the staff had already moved away. I promise I wasn't tackling them to the ground or anything.

I'm not desperate enough to be at their door at the same time every Sunday but it's nice to get some extra bits whilst legitimately shopping for other things.

For once in my life I'm glad that my local Tesco is the Diss branch. I have never in my life experienced this phenomenon there!

Bit harsh. Some people really are that desperate tbh. If you don't like it move your snobby bum away from the aisle.

I used to get all sorts of amazing stuff at Waitrose when I started living alone - packs of dim sum for 50p, monkfish fillets for £1, pak choi for 15p. I dined like a Queen and spent hardly anything. Nobody else used to even look in that section. That was about 10 years ago now though.

Nowaways the reduced offerings in my local Tesco mostly consist of:

• A pot of pineapple, slightly brown and soggy looking - 20p off
• Baby spinach, wilted and manky - 35p off
• Platter of squashed out-of-season berries - 60p off (but still the best part of £4)
• Cauliflower that looks like it's been kicked around the store for the last week - 40p off
• Some artisan tomato variety that is on offer at 2 for £4 - reduced to £2.15

Don't even get me started on those crates of 'miscellaneous bashed packets' that all supermarkets have loitering somewhere. It's always full of broken ice cream cones, kitten milk, shoe polish in a strange shade, and leaky aftersun.

Gone are the halcyon days of price reductions.

Ooo I love a good Whoopsie! I got 6 wholemeal baps for 10p last night in Asda. No scrum though, just me, I could have taken the lot but we didn't need them. I've never witnessed bad manners at the reduced counter, but I live in Cornwall and most things take a while to reach us

Quite saddened by some of these comments, I'm with Dawndonna... When a reduction of 30p means being able to have that week's loaf of bread, it really does make a difference; when you're already choosing whether to 'heat or eat' every winter, even a small discount really does help. Ironically, compassion costs nothing, even without a yellow sticker.

cozie that happened to me too, and it was the last avocado in the store and I desperately wanted it (pregnancy cravings!). It was madness!

ginny nobody is judging those who buy the reduced items, we've all been there. I once managed to feed our family on £5 worth of reduced stuff for a week during a particularly difficult period.

The judgment is reserved for those who behave so badly about it.

There's no excuse for rudeness or violence.

Ds1 ate like a king, out of the Co-op reduced cabinet, whilst he was a student! Legs of lamb for next to nothing, steaks, ditto - he used to ring up and tell us what he was eating that week, and it would always be really good.

Mind you, I think it is easier to make good use of the reduced cabinet if you don't meal plan until you get to the supermarket - I like to have the week's meals planned out and the shopping list complete before I go - otherwise I always forget something vital - so I only get the reduced things if I am going to use that meat (or whatever) in that week's meals, or if it is something I know I will use in the next few weeks, so it's not going to be sat in the freezer forever (bargain geese excepted). Ds1 would nip to the Co-op, see what meat he could get from the reduced section, then make the week's meals around that - I couldn't cope with that level of anarchy!

I wonder if people in supermarkets do Customer Derby like that brilliant scene in "Cabin Pressure" where they run a sweep on which aeroplane passenger will make it first to the loos once they switch off the "Fasten seatbelts" sign.

Cowstits

I completely agree that there's no excuse for rudeness or violence, but I disagree that there's no judging. To give PPs the benefit of the doubt (as another poster suggested upthread), I'll quote an opinion not given by anyone personally on this thread:

'I got filmed once (and in work uniform) with someone commenting "here they are, scum of the earth fighting for bargain shit food nobody wants"
That was the politest thing he said while filming me.'

If you don't read that same attitude in some of the other posts, fair play, we can agree to disagree. I'm impressed with your £5 shop though, and very much hope that those times are a distant memory for you now.

I'm not ashamed to say that once every couple of weeks I go sneaking round the M&S food shop, pretending I'm looking for something in particular, when really I'm just looking for anything with a yellow sticker on!! - but to be fair, I can't afford to shop in M&S and finding £3.50 cheese for 20p or a whole fresh chicken for £1, it does get a bit addictive although I do end up buying stuff which has no use whatsoever but will freeze, ten garlic prawns anyone??!!

There's always a dubious-looking pack of Scotch eggs in there too, that no one ever wants.

That is an heirloom, Sapphire.

If anyone tries to buy it, the situation ends up like the "Cheese" sketch from Monty Python ("Sorry - can't sell you that it's too runny/green/hairy" etc). Then it goes back on the shelf.

Happy, I think you're right.