People love a good bargain. We’ve seen riots break out on Black Friday sales over discounted products as people push, scream, grab in utter chaos to get their hands on the best bargain. But chaotic scenes in French general stores last week proved that it’s not only the Americans who lose their minds during sale season.
French Go Crazy Over Nutella Sale
When the prices of the world’s most popular hazelnut-chocolate spread are slashed by 70%, people are bound to go a little nutty. Thousands of French people flooded the supermarkets this weekend when they heard that jars of Nutella were going at a discounted price of 1.41 euros reassuring the world that Nutella was that one food item that people would ‘kill’ for.
Several viral videos have emerged in the midst of the chaotic sale showing shoppers crowding up the Nutella isle and scooping up as many jars as their arms would them to carry, attacking anyone in the process who would as much as dare to look at loot the wrong way.
French people flooding the supermarkets as soon as they heard that jars of Nutella were going at a discounted price of only 1.41 euros
Government Compelled to Take Action Against Special Promotions
It was the Intermarché supermarket which made the daring move of slashing the Nutella prices to such an extent that the world was suddenly reminded of the French revolution where people fought for bread – only this time, the spoils of the war were much tastier.
The supermarket chain across the nation announced the Nutella sale which was meant to last for three days, saving consumers more than 3 euros per 950-gram jars. By Saturday, the ‘Nutella riots’ had gotten so out of hand that the French government was forced to take action on unregulated special promotions that can even make the sophisticated French people behave like animals.
The government announced that it will discuss the issue of discounts and promotions during the upcoming cabinet meeting on 31st January and find a way to limit them.
Stock Ran Out Within Minutes
In some supermarkets the situation got so out of control that made employees act as mediators in order to prevent fights from taking place near the Nutella isle
According to the Supermarket’s announcement, the Nutella sale was expected to last for three days but nobody had anticipated such an overwhelming response from shoppers who cleaned out the isles within minutes. A cashier in one of the supermarket chains said that he had never witnessed anything more chaotic in his entire career.
All the shoppers were crammed into a single isle that held the Nutella supply there was constant screaming and shouting emerging from that corner of the store. Several Nutella jars had been compromised during the chaos and the staff were appointed with the exhausting task of cleaning out the broken jars which were scattered everywhere on the floor.
Chaos in Stores
In some supermarket chains the situation got so out of control that employees were told to act as mediators to prevent fights from breaking out over the addictive chocolate spread, but the staff members were helplessly pushed out of the way by a wave of crazed shoppers.
In the frenzy, one of the customers even sustained an eye injury and had to be taken to the hospital. More than three hundred jars were sold out within minutes as people grabbed as much as they could. One of the cashiers said that he saw nothing but Nutella jars at the checkout for three days. In his words, customers had ‘fought like animals’ over a small jar of chocolate spread.
Italian Chocolate Manufacturer Issues a Statement
According to Ferrero Rocher, the company had no involvement in the special promotion and it strongly disapproved the supermarket’s decision to sell Nutella jars on a discounted price
The anticipation of getting their hands on a discounted jar of Nutella had forced people to stand in line for hours in front of the store before its opening time in the morning. Concerned for the safety of the shoppers, the supermarket chain managers were finally compelled to limit each person’s shopping card to 3 jars of Nutella.
The maker of Italian chocolate spread, Ferrero Rocher also issued a statement saying that the company had no involvement in the special promotion and it strongly disapproved the supermarket’s decision which had negatively affected people’s perception of their brand. Nutella had also made headlines before when 20 tonnes of the chocolate spread was stolen in Germany last year.
