How manky do reduced products need to be before you avoid buying them?

As an on-off ‘short date’ shopper I love a bargain and always make a point of heading to the reduced section or looking out for those magical yellow stickers whenever I’m shopping, particularly in supermarkets.

I find if I time it right (around 7-8pm for a supermarket bargain), there are some real steals to be had. Some of the packets may be a bit battered or the contents close to the sell-by date, but generally they’re at least usable.

Dud deduction

So when I visited a DIY store last weekend, I was naturally drawn to the sale racks in the gardening section, figuring I could pick up a few cheap bedding plants.

Only, when I got there, most of the plants had been that deprived of water that they looked half-dead. I deduced that they were unsalvageable and put them back on the shelf, thinking I should probably tell a sales assistant.

Imagine my surprise then, when a customer behind me started popping all the items I’d put back into her trolley! Surely she wasn’t going to actually buy them?

Significant reduction

Similarly, a Tesco customer found a significantly reduced chocolate bunny left over from Easter still for sale on the shelves of her local branch. Only this wasn’t just a fraction of its original cost, but had melted that much that it was a fraction of its original size too.

Sure, it was now only 63p, down from £2.50, but, as the customer posted on Facebook, who would actually buy it?

Now some might say, as a Tesco spokesperson reportedly did, that it’s better to try to sell it than waste it entirely. Do you think overly damaged products sold be either be given away or consigned to the bin out the back rather than sold?

How bad do reduced goods have to be before you’d avoid buying them? Or have you bought something that appeared unsalvageable that turned out to be the bargain of the century?

Find out how supermarket prices compare on non-reduced produce with Which?’s monthly supermarket price comparison.