Reductions on fresh food appear at particular times of day and follow a repeating pattern. The schedule is set by shelf life and by when staff are available to apply it.
Shelf life forces the decision
Perishable stock has a date after which it cannot be sold, and its value on that date is zero rather than reduced.
Any price above the cost of disposal is therefore better than none, which is why final reductions can be extremely deep.
The retailer is not being generous. It is choosing a small recovery over a certain loss plus a waste-handling charge, and the second option costs money rather than merely earning none.
Reductions happen in scheduled passes
Applying markdowns requires someone to check dates, print labels and apply them, so stores do it in organised passes rather than continuously.
Most stores run an early pass with modest reductions and a later one with deeper cuts, timed against the remaining selling hours.
The exact times differ by store and by staffing pattern, but they repeat closely enough that regular shoppers learn them quickly.
The first pass balances two risks
Reducing too early gives away margin on stock that would have sold at full price to shoppers who had not yet arrived.
Reducing too late leaves insufficient time for anyone to buy it, converting the whole quantity into waste.
The early pass tests demand at a modest discount, and how much remains determines how deep the later pass goes.
Waste rules shape what happens next
Unsold perishables may be donated, redirected to animal feed, sent for anaerobic processing or disposed of, and the available routes depend on local regulation and vary by region.
Where donation is straightforward, stores are less dependent on deep markdowns because an alternative recovery route exists.
Where it is not, the incentive to clear stock through price is stronger and final reductions tend to be deeper.
What the pattern offers a shopper
Reduced fresh food suits meals cooked the same day or items that freeze well, since the remaining shelf life is short by definition.
Buying reduced stock for a plan that assumes several days of storage converts a saving into waste, which defeats the purpose entirely.
Shoppers who can adjust a meal around what happens to be reduced capture the most, while those shopping to a fixed list capture the least. The flexibility is what is being rewarded rather than the timing of the visit.