A flash sale on Nutella has resulted in shoppers brawling in the aisles of French supermarkets.
The Intermarché chain sparked the frenzy by cutting the price of jars of the chocolate-hazelnut spread by 70%, bringing them down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40 (£1.20).
Local newspaper Le Progres likened the scenes to “riots” and reported that one store employee received a black eye in the melee as customers scrambled to get their hands on the cut-price paste.
One shopper at the Rive-de-Gier supermarket in central France complained: “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.”
Footage posted on social media showed people scrambling to stock up on the spread in scenes not unlike Black Friday stampedes, causing one user to mutter: “Ce n’est pas normal.”
The ugly scenes prompted a visit from the police to at least one store, while another began rationing jars to just three per person in a bid to stave off further hostilities.
According to The Local, 700 jars of Nutella were sold in 45 minutes at a Montbrison store, with the supermarket planning to repeat the discount on Friday and Saturday.
The official Nutella Twitter account does not mention the supermarket skirmishes, though it does urge people to “keep calm” ahead of World Nutella Day on 5 February 2018.