There’s apparently a ‘secret’ supermarket code many of us have been missing when we’ve been going on our weekly shops. This can help you save money in the long run
Shoppers are always looking for bargains to cut down the price of their weekly shops, and there’s one specific code you’ll want to be on the lookout for. If you see something on sale, you might be tempted to stock up on it, because you don’t know how long it will be on offer for.
But what if you don’t know if you’ll like the product or not? Consumer experts at Which? have shared a “secret” supermarket code that will unlock the mystery of how long an item will be on offer for, which in turn can help you save money.
Taking to the @whichuk TikTok account, the team at Which? shared “the secret supermarket code that will save you money”. On consumer expert shared the price tag of an item at Tesco, and explained: “This is the secret code that tells you when it’s going to end on promotion at Tesco. They put it backwards, so it can be a little bit tricky to spot.”
The code, which was located near the per kilo price of a tin of Papapol Beans With Sausages In Tomato sauce, read 250121. According to the consumer expert, the first digits mean the year, so 2025, the middle means the month, so January, and the last number is the date, so the 21st. The expert added: “That means you can see something cheap, buy one to try and know how long you have to stock up in bulk if you like it.”
At Waitrose, the date is a little more obvious, as it will say the date and the month in a “21/01” format under the price. In addition, some supermarkets, like Sainsbury’s, only show the date a promotion started. However, according to the consumer expert, Sainsbury’s typically end their promitions on Tuesdays, which means you can have a pretty good idea of when it will end.
Taking to Instagram, they shared the same advice, explaining further: “When we spot a tempting promotion, our impulse is to snap it up in case the offer ends soon. But it’s easy to check exactly when Tesco Clubcard Prices will finish: the date an offer ends is written backwards in smallprint on the shelf label. If it says ‘241001’, that offer will end on 1 October.
“Shelf labels for Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices have the date the promotion started in smallprint, which gives a clue to how long it will be valid for – offers usually run for a fortnight and end on Tuesdays.“Even if an offer is ending soon, our research has found that a lot of products regularly go back on offer again and again, so it’s best to only buy the item if you were already planning to do so.”
