Intermarché, a supermarket chain in France, reduced the price of its Nutella supply by 70 percent and advertised the deep discount. Shoppers showed up in droves on January 25 for the limited amount after seeing the usual $5.85 price of a 33.51-ounce jar drop to $1.75, the Boston Globe noted.
Shoppers stampeded supermarket aisles, caused gridlock, and created chaos as they cleared store shelves within an hour, according to the Statesman. There were one million jars of Nutella on sale. Videos posted on social media, such as Twitter and on YouTube, depict customers shouting and shoving one another to attain the much-beloved chocolate and hazelnut spread.
Brawling broke out between customers during the sale
Some determined shoppers, intent on leaving the stores with Nutella, resorted to throwing punches. Brawling ensured. Police were summoned to some store locations to quell physical outbursts, the Globe and the Washington Post wrote. At a store location Loire, which is in central France, customers pushed store employees who tried to step in-between hoards of customers, the Statesman reported. On customer sustained a black eye.
One customer likened fellow Nutella sale shoppers to animals, the BBC and Fortune wrote. The customer also reportedly commented that others were punched in the head, had bloodied hands, and had their hair pulled. Fortune characterized some of the video footage as showing a “feeding frenzy in action.”
Jean-Marie Daragon, who manages the Montbrison branch of Intermarché, told the French newspaper Le Progres that some customers tried to circumvent others from getting their hands on the specially-priced Nutella by arriving on Thursday night.
The customers hid the store’s Nutella “in other places,” according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Sale price spread Nutella supply too thin
Ferrero, which owns the Nutella brand, faults the supermarket chain for the mêlée, resulting from the massive price-slashing promotion of its product. Nutella, principally made from palm oil and sugar, has long been a breakfast table staple in many French households, where an estimated 100 million jars of the spread are consumed annually, FOX News noted.
On the heels of the sale and siege over one of its flagship products, Italian-based Ferrero stated that the price promotion for Nutella was a unilateral decision made by Intermarché. Ferrero additionally denounced the outcome of the supermarket chain’s sale, which left customers confused as well as disappointed, several news agencies reported.
Product pricing perfect timing for World Nutella Day
Though the discounted price and sale were initially planned to run until Saturday, supplies did not survive determined shoppers, who struggled, clawed, and fought to get their hands on the jars of Nutella. All-in-all, the upside is that no one was killed in store skirmishes. The sale was held in time for World Nutella Day on February 5.
