M&S shoppers fill baskets with yellow sticker food as 'loads' reduced
Shoppers may spot a lot more discount stickers on items in the M&S Foodhall as stock issues continue
Yellow sticker items are typically spotted towards the end of the day, as supermarkets make a final effort to sell products before they expire or are due to be taken off the shelves for good. However, M&S shoppers might notice these stickers during their early morning shop, some bargain hunters claim.
The retailer is still bouncing back from a cyber attack that took place last month. As a result, the store is still unable to process online orders for clothing, food and other items, leading to an excess of additional items taking up space on the shop shelves.
According to eagle-eyed shoppers, some M&S stores have reportedly slapped yellow sticker discounts onto certain products in an attempt to quickly clear out stock and avoid food waste. TikTok users have showcased M&S Food shops plastering shelves with stickers for items that still have days left before they go off.
A handful have alleged that some items - including meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, and cream cakes - are more than half price because stock levels have still not been resolved following the digital attack, reports the Mirror. M&S has been contacted for comment.
In one video shared by Danielle, who goes by the username @charityshoplife online, she encouraged the one million people who watched her video to "get to M&S" if they love a good deal. She added: "The yellow sticker ladies are out in full force!"
The shopper took to social media with a basket full of bargain food to share what was going on at her local M&S. She showed staff applying stickers in the mid-morning.
Some items had more than a few days of shelf life left, and Danielle said: "Now is a good time to stock up your freezer. I've seen quite a few similar videos, so it is definitely worth checking out your local M&S and seeing if there are loads of yellow stickers too."
In another TikTok video, user Steph (@steph_chulo) highlighted that her M&S also had plenty of items with yellow sticker discounts, with products "two or three days away" from their expiry date. She mentioned that the markdowns were found "almost every aisle".
The Liverpool ECHO reported finding bargains in a city centre store as well, spotting reduced prices on various items such as butcher sausages for £2.00, haddock fillets for £5.00 and lamb's liver for £1.25. Other deals included minced meat for £5.00, whole stuffed chickens for £10, duck breast strips for £2.75, and two breaded cod fillets also priced at £2.75.
Following the incident initially reported over two weeks ago, M&S confirmed on May 13 that hackers had accessed customer personal data. Stuart Machin, Chief Executive, described the breach as sophisticated and clarified that the compromised data includes names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth.
He reassured customers that payment details, card information and account passwords were not affected and there's no evidence of the data being shared online. The high street retailer has not disclosed the number of customers impacted, but it has contacted all online shoppers to inform them about the data breach.
Mr Machin told customers there is "no need for customers to take any action". He added: "To give customers extra peace of mind, they will be prompted to reset their password the next time they visit or log on to their M&S account."