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'Ce n'est pas normal!' French shoppers brawl over discounted Nutella 'Ce n'est pas normal!' French shoppers brawl over discounted Nutella
(35 minutes later)
Hefty price cut on chocolate hazelnut spread causes chaos at supermarkets across the countryHefty price cut on chocolate hazelnut spread causes chaos at supermarkets across the country
Guardian staffGuardian staff
Fri 26 Jan 2018 04.04 GMTFri 26 Jan 2018 04.04 GMT
Last modified on Fri 26 Jan 2018 10.17 GMT Last modified on Fri 26 Jan 2018 10.28 GMT
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Police have reportedly been called to supermarkets in France after a 70% discount on Nutella sent shoppers into a frenzy. Kim Willsher in Paris
The discount, applied by the Intermarché chain, reduced the price of the chocolate hazelnut spread from €4.50 to €1.40. France has seen nothing like it; supermarket aisles of brawling customers throwing punches, pulling hair and shoving the elderly out of the way.
The resulting scenes in some Intermarché stores were likened to riots. Footage from inside several shops showed chaos as shoppers swarmed around the shelves while staff tried and failed to control them. A decision by the Intermarché store chain to offer a hefty discount on jars of Nutella - the country’s favourite chocolate spread - caused near riots in shops around the country.
In one video posted on Twitter, stunned bystanders declare “ce n’est pas normal” as they watch the scrum. Police were reportedly called as fights broke out among swarming customers grabbing 950g jars of Nutella reduced from 4.50 euros 1.41 euros, a 70 % discount.
In one shop an employee reportedly got a black eye after attempting to separate warring customers. In another, shelves were emptied in 15 minutes. In one store, a member of staff was punched in the eye trying to separate warring customers. In another, shoppers cleared shelves in 15 minutes.
“They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand. It was horrible,” one customer at the Rive-de-Gier supermarket in central France told Le Progres newspaper. “They are like animals. One woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a blooody hand,” one customer told French journalists.
Staff at a branch in the Loire department told the paper that the sale was “a catastrophe”. “We need another system,” an exasperated employee said at a different store. Queues had formed outside many Intermarché supermarkets on Thursday, reminiscent of the first days of the sales, and customers were limited to three pots per person.
The Local reported that police were called in Ostricourt in northern France, where a fight had broken out. In one Intermarché in the Moselle in eastern France, a member of staff reported: “People were piling in, they knocked everything over and broke stuff. It was an orgy...we were on the point of calling the police.”
Elsewhere, stores were forced to implement a limit of three pots per customer to keep the peace. In another store, staff said they had sold in one go the number of Nutella jars normally sold in three months.
The French are famous for their love of the spread, but it is popular across the world. On its website, the company proudly proclaims that the amount of Nutella produced each year is equal to the weight of the Empire State Building. “They were fighting over it...at the tills there was only Nutella,” one told Le Progrès newspaper.
Until now, this type of hysterical behaviour has been viewed in France as a mostly American ‘Black Friday’ phenomenom and evidence of the perils of rampant free-market consumerism.
Nutella was created by the Ferrero family in Italy in the 1940s. Around 365 million kilos of the hazelnut chocolate spread are consumer around the world every year.
The company said it regretted the “promotion and its consequences”, blaming Intermarché for the chaos.
In a statement, the supermarket chain said it was “surprised” the offer had caused battle scenes in its stores and was sorry for the “disagreeable events customers suffered”.
Sophie Chevalier, a French anthropologist and specialist in customer behaviour said the scenes were “incredible”.
“These are unusual in France, except when there’s a particularly exceptional sale and more what we see in developing countries or where there’s a regular shortage of essential products,” Chevalier told Le Parisien.
“Would there be the same reaction to jars of pickles? Certainly not. It’s a question of the kind of product that explains this. Nutella is pure pleasure for children and to offer it at a bargain price obviously attracts lots of customers.”
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