Rioting during the French Revolution was something everyone studied in school. Well, it may now be time to update the history books because 2018 has given us a new one - the Nutella riots!
Yes - Nutella - the very same heaven-in-a-jar hazelnut chocolate spread.
In France, after supermarket chain Intermarché offered a 70% discount on Nutella - bringing the price down from €4.50 to €1.40 - over 200 people waited for the store to open at one of their locations, according to a sales assistant.
Customers were seen fighting, snatching as many bottles as they could. According to French news outlet Le Progres, one customer even ended up with a black eye!
“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,” a customer told the newspaper.
“We were trying to get in between the customers, but they were pushing us,” an employee said.
One of the stores sold close to what they would have sold in three months in fifteen minutes.
Don’t believe us? See for yourself.
Serieux ??!! Tout ça pour du Nutella ?! #Emeute #Nutella pic.twitter.com/UoNTmK78eE
— •KENNY LE BON• (@kennyLebon) January 25, 2018
#Nutella #Intermarché encore ce matin dans le magasin où je bosse pic.twitter.com/urT99NWA28
— Anthony (@Anthony_PLD) January 26, 2018
POUR DU #Nutella MDRRRRRRR
— King kdo (@KINGKDOO) January 25, 2018
>>> https://t.co/2UaHI8Ovad pic.twitter.com/GFR99t1K0L
The poor managers of the stores were trying to do everything in their power to contain the mayhem. At one store, the manager restricted the quantity to three jars per person, but the customers kept going back and forth.
In multiple stores, the situation reportedly got so out of hand that the police had to be called in!
Ferrero, the maker of the spread, distanced itself from the violence.
“We want to clarify that the decision for the special offer was taken unilaterally by Intermarche, we regret the consequences of this operation, which created confusion and disappointment in the consumers’ minds,” the company said in a statement.