Waitrose shopper baffled by yellow sticker item they'd be 'too scared' to use

A Waitrose customer was left baffled during a recent trip to the supermarket after spotting one particular item that had been reduced in price. Yellow stickers are commonly used by stores to indicate large savings - often due to imminent expiry dates or end of season.

Whilst these items tend to be food items, this particular Waitrose appeared to be aiming to entice shoppers into practicing safe sex. "Yellow label condoms?" the customer wrote on Reddit alongside a snap of a 12-pack of Durex' thin-feel, regular fit variety. Indeed, the sticker, marked 'Too Good To Waste' revealed the condoms had been cut in price from £13.23 to £8.49.

Confused, the Waitrose customer continued: "At my local Waitrose the other day I saw they had these condoms with the yellow label sticker. It really got me thinking - who would buy these?"

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They went on to confess: "I think I’d just be too scared they’d perish! Would love to be proven wrong by folks here though so please let me know your thoughts."

One person explained in response: "If they're in date they're fine. They'll be upgrading the packaging or changing store stock. In far better nick than the trusty spare in the wallet."

A second Reddit user added: "Probably end of line, discontinued product. They don't tend to return things so yellow label them. I was a stock controller for a different supermarket and had to re-merchandise sections multiple times. Easiest way to clear lines was to yellow label as they get seen more."

A third agreed, penning: "I think they're just closing the line or updating the product details/packaging. So they want to shift the previous stock. I don't think you could sell out of date contraception, just as you can't sell expired medicine."

Whilst a fourth recalled: "Worked doing online home delivery orders for Waitrose. Once had an order that was just four boxes of 12 pack condoms. That was it."

Meanwhile, a fifth joked: "People aren't having casual sex anymore. Gen Z is to busy making TikToks. Millennials are to broke and depressed for it. Gen X are married and have kids. Boomers don't want to risk a heart attack with Viagra cause their properly value will go down if someone died in the house. Durex is doomed."

It comes after a study published in September found that Brits are hardly using condoms anymore - despite a nationwide surge in STIs.

The research, conducted by Durex themselves found the UK is now one of the most unlikely countries to purchase condoms, ranking 33rd of the 36 countries surveyed in the last year.

The findings, taken from Durex’s 2024 Global Sex Survey, also revealed that only 15% of the nation purchased condoms in the past year – almost half the global average of 28%.

The biggest barriers to condom usage was found to be a perceived lack of sensation, with 16% of sexually active adults ditching usage for that reason alone. Another barrier was found to be a lack of spontaneity (14%), while 13% of Brits feel condoms are a mood killer.

This is despite the number of STIs increasing year on year. The latest government data showing that, compared to 2022, the number of new STIs in the UK has increased by 4.7% in the past year (from 383,789 to 401,800).