Reduced to Clear

I stumbled upon this shop the other day when visiting the New World. The name intrigued me and I wondered what bargains lay in store so I went in and checked it out. The shop isn’t that big (keep in mind I’m comparing it to discount grocery stores in Australia here).
There was 2L of milk available for $ 2.75, 300mL skinny coke cans for .99 cents, and lots of reduced Easter confectioinery (including Cadbury). There was also rice cakes, crackers, and muesli bars. I’m sure you’ll agree that milk price is pretty great.
The nature of this shop is ‘for a limited time’ but if you happen to be in the area and have the time, stop and see what you can pick up for a bargain.

I find these type of dreary discount stores seem to sap your energy and very will to live. You go in thinking you’ll find a bargain but the store is so uninviting, with poor lighting and what’s on offer does not tend to stimulate you in any way. So you browse and look at the unfamiliar brands and you conclude you don’t really want anything — it’s usually a relief to get out of there. I think the premise behind this place is that they stock stuff which is nearing its sell by date which the supermarkets cannot stock anymore. That’s fair enough and you can find bargains that way. But when you have never heard of any of brands involved, you are reluctant to take a risk on them — or at least I am anyway. This store reminds me of some dodgy supermarket in Eastern Europe — from about 1988 or something.

This store was a great find! I had no idea that this place existed until last weekend.
Having only just opened in the new complex by New World, down the Mt Roskill end of Dominion Road, the Reduced to Clear store is exactly what it sounds like — a store full of reduced to clear items.
Corn chips, confectionary, sauces, pastes and other condiments, ice cream, frozen meals, herbs and spices — this store stocks everything and anything that you could find in a supermarket that may have a best before date. As is the case with best before dates — all of this food is still very much edible and delicious — it’s just regular supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell it anymore.
And doesn’t that just work out perfectly for us?! Now you can find all those goodies at a quarter of the price from the Reduced to Clear store!
Tip: Due to the nature of this store, the stock changes constantly so every experience will be a different one. If you’re after something in particular this may not be the place to find it, but you’ll definitely come across some great bargains!

Out of interest I decided to check this store out, the newest of the Reduced to Clear outlets. My mum would go and tell me about all this stuff she had gotten here and how cheap it was but I wondered how much of it had expired. Turns out unless stated otherwise the stock hasn’t expired or isn’t even close to expiry unless they state so (but check anyway). It isn’t just food, there are cleaning products and shampoo, that sort of thing and the deals can be good.
I only bought one thing, Justin’s peanut butters. These are American and I had seen them in the health food store I frequent but not bought any as it was $ 5 for a small squeeze pack and the jar was over $ 15. Here however squeeze pack were only 0.80 cents and a jar was only $ 5. So I was able to buy variants of the product, chocolate and honey peanut butter and original to see if I liked it and then went back for the jars. Fantastic vegan product at a really cheap price. The other good brands I saw in the store were Cadbury’s, The Natural Confectionery Company, Quakers and Eta.