Shoppers described scenes of 'absolute chaos' this morning (Thursday) as adults pushed and shoved children as young as seven to get their hands on bottles of Prime drinks when they went on sale at Aldi. Footage captured on video showed chaotic scenes in a number of the supermarket's branches after it stocked the viral beverage created by YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI.
The pair have used their social media clout to create huge demand for the drink, which contains coconut water, sweeteners and vitamins. Student Kristina Sheppard, 19, captured a brief video from her local store in Sydenham, East London, as customers battled it out to get their hands on the limited edition drink.
She said adults were 'pushing children' and people were walking out with crates of the drink, which Aldi put on sale for £1.99.
Kristina, a PE and Sports Exercise Science student said: "I got there at around 7.45am and I took the video at 8.04am. It was just hectic. I didn't push anyone, but there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on.
"I thought there was a limit of one bottle per flavour, but I saw people getting cases of them. There were parents pushing children. There were kids between the ages of 7 and 14, they were being pushed out of the way.
"One of the staff was shouting 'parents, stop pushing the kids'. It was absolute carnage. I just got my bottles and left, I didn't want to stick around much longer."
Advertised as a 'hydration drink', Prime contains mostly water added with vitamins and minerals and has few calories with no added sugar. It is also made up of coconut water, but does not have any caffeine in it.
Kristina, who managed to snag a bottle of Blue Raspberry and Lemon Lime flavours, added: "I've never even tried it before, I just wanted to see what all the hype was about. I've looked at the ingredients and it's just coconut water, it doesn't look that amazing."
Stores across the country saw long queues this morning after it was announced they would be stocking the drink. Around 50 people began queuing outside the budget supermarket in Gravesend, Kent, shortly before 8am.
Ellie-Louise Dadswell, 20, began queuing outside the store at 7.45am in hopes of getting a bottle of the drink for her 14-year-old brother. And while crates of the drink sold out within seconds, she was able to get one bottle of the ice pop flavour.
She said: "I began queuing at about 7.45am, but it didn’t take long to go down as the product was all gone so quickly. No one was talking to each other really, just trying their hardest to get it. There was loads of pushing and shoving."
In Bradford, West Yorkshire, an Aldi sold out of Prime within ten minutes after queues formed before the store opened at 8am. The popular drink was initially only sold in Asda stores, but huge demand led to shortages, which fuelled massive resale prices online and in other stores. An off-licence in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, went viral on TikTok for selling bottles of it at £25 a go - with customers travelling hundreds of miles to get their hands on it.
Announcing the sale earlier this week, Aldi said: "The viral hydration drink created by two popular YouTube stars, KSI and Logan Paul, is available to buy for just £1.99 in Aldi stores nationwide on December 29. The drink will be a Specialbuy – and as with all Specialbuys, once they’re gone, they’re gone! The supermarket is expecting high demand, so a purchase limit of one of each variant per customer has been set to ensure as many people as possible get the opportunity to buy the product."
