Making Good Use of Markdowns
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Honestly.
A “manager’s special” is not stale or bad food. Not if you shop at a reputable store. It is actually a store’s way of making good use of resources. If it hits the “sell by” date before it is sold, the store takes a loss on it. If they mark down the price a few days prior, they get something and the customer gets a great deal. It’s a win-win. If you’ve got coupons for those items, the deal can be even sweeter.
I recently found sausages and gourmet cheeses marked super low at my local Ralphs. Many of these items would be ones that I wouldn’t pay full price for, but would be happy to pick them up “on markdown.” And since I love my freezer, I brought most of these items home to store for a later date. The best of both worlds…. great price + convenience when I want it.
Markdowns on meat here at my local store are amazing. I have been known to get a full pack of baby back ribs for 75% off. It was around $5. I picked up 6 huge packages. Got them home and froze them. My local butcher back home told me that even when they are rock bottom prices, you can still freeze them for a year and they will be just fine when you pull them out. I found a 6lb boston pork butt the other day for $3.54. That offered us 3 meals along with the .99 cent 5lb bag of potatoes that were on sale. I made french fries, mashed and you name it. Markdowns are the best.
This is the only warning I will give. Stay out of my Kroger!!! I have enough people to fight over the managers specials already. Just kidding 🙂 I cleaned house on flat iron steaks a while back. Why eat hamburger when you can have steak for the same price?
Just today we found some hummus marked down to .99 because its “sell by” date is today. That takes care of some of our dinner prep, and hummus is something I can feed to my 10 month old! Everyone wins!
I shop at Kroger and sometimes I get super giddy when I see the markdowns. I’ve learned the best time of day to go for the best markdowns and often stockup–freezing most things. I can always find things like bagged salad, going ripe bananas, milk, yogurt, Eggland’s Best Eggs and amazing meat deals–all marked down Manager’s Specials. It’s even better when the markdown coordinates with a coupon! Just yesterday I found marked down yogurt (paired with a coupon it was $0.09 for a four pack), marked down milk (paired with a coupon it was FREE!), marked down sour cream (paired with a coupon it was FREE), marked down strawberries (paired with coupon they were FREE) and marked down hamburger buns for $0.25. I was thrilled to walk out with a huge cart of stuff for only $13. Yay for Manager’s Specials.
I’m like you – I used to walk right by markdowns thinking that they were ‘old’ or I might get sick from them. I do still use caution (had a bad case of meat once & returned the stuff for a full credit – no we did not eat it – it just smelled not the best) but have found some wonderful deals this way. I definitely check the bread markdowns and produce stuff. With meat (because of my previous experience), I give more thought to it.
I love markdowns! One of the stores I shop at ahs fantastic markdowns. At first, I was hesitant, not because I was worried about the quality of the food, but because it’s a store that many parents from my kids schools shop at. But after a while, i didn’t care! I regularly get good deals on meat and prepackaged deli type items at this store, but never any deals on produce or dairy. However, another store that I shop at less frequently has good produce and dairy clearance, but not so much deals on meat. Both take coupons on the discount items.
Of all the stores in my town, it’s Ralph’s(Kroger) that has the widest variety and best deals. There must have been some house cleaning going on in early December at my Ralph’s because I found numerous manager’s specials on produce, fresh herbs, meat, dairy, chocolate, bread…. It was great to stock up before Christmas.
i always check for markdowns when i shop! they are awesome 🙂
We have markdowns here, but they never seem to match any of my coupons well enough to create a deal as good as or better than what I can get waiting for a sale to match my coupon to. Occassionally, though, I do find a great markdown on produce or meat (even with coupons)! Love those!
I regularly shop the manager’s specials at my Kroger for dairy, produce, and meat. I’ve gotten milk (5 days before the sell-by date) for .99 a gallon, and there’s almost always some kind of yogurt on mark-down (the biggest containers of store-brand yogurt were marked .89 last time i was there, for instance). In the hot summers of Texas, I find that freezing the yogurt in serving-size containers works great – I pull out a couple in the morning at breakfast and put them in the fridge, and by the afternoon when we need a cool treat, it’s still partially frozen and slushy enough to be ice cold. Since I’m freezing them, i don’t mind if they are close to the sell-by when I buy them.