Savvy shoppers looking for deals during their weekly grocery shopping often come across price labels indicating temporary discounts. Supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose use unique codes on their tags to signal price reductions, with staff understanding these codes better than regular customers.
Understanding these codes can provide shoppers with valuable insight into the duration of an offer. By deciphering the hidden numbers, shoppers can anticipate when to stock up before prices go back up. According to consumer watchdog Which?, these supermarkets frequently rotate deals on household essentials to stay competitive, often tied to loyalty schemes.
Each supermarket has its own loyalty program: Tesco with Clubcard, Sainsbury’s with Nectar, and Waitrose offering deals to all shoppers without requiring membership. While Tesco may provide promotion end dates on its app, decoding the fine print on labels can reveal the deadline for discounts.
The seemingly random numbers on labels actually signify the end date of deals, but they may appear confusing at first glance. By reading the numbers backward, shoppers can determine when discounted items will return to full price. For instance, a code like “250121” translates to January 21, 2025.
Apart from these codes, some supermarkets also display expiration dates more visibly. Sainsbury’s, for instance, shows the start date of discounts, whereas Waitrose includes small date and month details on labels. Meanwhile, Which? recommends a trick to decode labels for the best quality produce, as some stores have removed ‘best before’ dates to reduce food waste.
In a guide on their website, Which? advises shoppers on deciphering codes for quality assurance. For example, at Asda and Tesco, a letter followed by a number indicates the best-before date, where the letter represents the month and the number is the day. Sainsbury’s codes start with ‘J’ and end with ‘S’, with the date in between, simplifying the process of checking product freshness.