Staff have told of how customers have been running into stores in Cardiff to get their hands on the Prime hydration drink which has been caught up in a viral social media wave this week. By late morning on Friday, December 30, all of the Prime drinks at Asda stores across Cardiff had run out.
Staff at stores at Asda Leckwith and at Cardiff Bay said the Prime drinks had been sold long before that, though. Staff at both stores said the drinks had been sold within an hour of the stores’ opening at 7am.
Like at Aldi supermarkets yesterday, shoppers queued in darkness on Friday morning outside Asda stores to nab the coconut water-based drinks created by Youtube stars KSI and Logan Paul. One staff member at Asda in Leckwith said customers had run into the shop as soon as the doors opened.
People queueing outside Aldi this morning will have been disappointed. The discount chain hadn’t restocked aisles with the drink after all stock went in minutes on Thursday. One staff member at Aldi at Western Avenue in Cardiff said she’d been shocked by the craze and had even been told how calls had been made to the supermarket hoping that bottles could be “reserved”. Another staff member at Aldi in Cardiff Bay said they also weren’t selling the drink on Friday.
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On Friday by 11am all that was left at Asda stores were empty spaces where the Prime drink had been stocked again. Staff said it hadn’t been unusual and each day that the stores stocked the drink have seen the same queues and frantic buying this week.
Asda confirmed that the drink will continue to be on sale at £2 in its stores, while Aldi has said it won’t be restocking the drink. On Friday a spokesperson for Aldi said: “As with all Specialbuys, Prime was available for a limited period only and has sold out. We don’t currently plan on restocking Prime at this time, but we will communicate if and when it is available again in future.”
A spokesperson for Asda responded to questions over continued availability of the drink, saying: “Asda is still stocking all six flavours of Prime, including blue raspberry, grape, ice pop, lemon and lime, orange and tropical punch, and meta moon. There are no immediate plans for this to change.”
Twitter user Jake Ferguson tweeted the below picture of a queue for Aldi on Thursday morning, saying: "Actual half a mile queues at Aldi this morning for Prime Hydration drink. This s*** is wild, only selling one flavour bottle per customer. Sold out in 20 minutes."
While the social media sensation evaded WalesOnline this week, reporter for our sister title Manchester Evening News, Ramazani Mwamba, bought one to try out. Pictures from Asda in Cardiff Bay shows an abundance of similar drinks, which Ramazani said taste better.
Asked whether the Prime drink is worth the hype, he said: “In short, no, it's not worth it. The drink honestly tastes a little like Lucozade and not the nice orange one either, the original. Recently, Prime have made it an effort to remind journalists that Prime is not an 'energy' drink but a 'hydration' drink.
"However, in my humble opinion there is no denying that it tastes exactly like one. It has all the hallmarks of the metallic, chemical taste that most popular energy drinks have despite the tonnes of flavouring they pack into them to make them more palatable. But even in those cases you often find a flavoured energy drink that tastes better than the rest.
"This isn't the case with Prime, the raspberry, lemon and lime and ice pop was barely present in their respective flavours and every bottle left me with a horrible soapy after taste. Perhaps KSI and Logan Paul have cracked the code and found a drink that only tastes halfway decent to young kids and teenagers, but I'll be happy if I never have to drink this ever again.”
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