Shocking scenes unfolded at Aldi stores across the UK as shoppers fought off kids to get their hands on a popular new drink created by two mega YouTube stars.
Prime Hydration is owned and promoted by Logan Paul and KSI, two online stars with a combined audience of over 30 million on the popular video platform.
The drink, which currently isn’t on sale in Australia, retails for £24.99 per bottle (approx. AU$45) at supermarkets in the UK and US after launching at the start of 2022.
However, it recently became available in British Aldi stores as part of a Special Buys promotion, priced at £1.99 (approx. AU$3.50) per bottle, leading to huge queues and fights, as it sold out “within about 30 seconds”, The Sun reports.
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Social media was quickly flooded with footage of crowds going to extreme lengths to snag the viral drink.
Footage from one store shows a crowd of people, including both adults and young children, pushing and shoving around a cardboard box of the drink, desperate to get hold of some.
The video, captured by 19-year-old student Kristina Sheppard in Sydenham, East London, revealed the “absolute chaos” at Aldi stores today.
“It was just hectic. I didn’t push anyone, but there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on,” she told The Sun.
“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.”
Another customer, Adam Smith, said he joined a queue for the drink with his son Charlie, 10, who is “obsessed” with the drink, early this morning.
He said that there were at least 50 people ahead of him in the line and more than 100 behind him.
Meanwhile, one shop assistant at Aldi a store in South East London said the store ran out of its limited stock within “minutes” of opening.
“People started queuing outside at 6am and we don’t even open until 8am,” the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
“We’d sold out within a few minutes of opening the doors, it’s crazy.
“People are going mad for it.”
She said the store had ordered in around 20 cases of the popular energy drink for its Special Buys sale.
Frankie Shaxted, deputy store manager of an Aldi store about an hour outside of London, said: “Stores were sent a limited number of units and that was gone within about 30 seconds.”
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.
The drink is so hot among youngsters that desperate parents have travelled more than 800 kms just to get their hands on a bottle.
The craze has even moved to online markets, with one savvy punter selling a “rare” bottle for a whopping $1800.
One pub owner is accepting the drinks as payments in hopes the product’s price will soar once supply dries out.
Prime was created and popularised by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul and has seen demand skyrocket in recent weeks.
Its popularity grew after the pair promoted it heavily around high-profile celebrity boxing matches in the UK.
The duo came up with the idea for coconut water-based Prime Hydration after their final boxing match in 2019.
During a live stream, the pair said they wanted to “rival the biggest companies on earth” with their products – including “Pepsi, Coke, Gatorade and Powerade”.
But they insisted their main goals for the 11-flavour project – which includes blue raspberry, tropical punch and grape – were taste and hydration.
And demand for the drink has grown ever since, massively outpacing supply as youngsters try to emulate their social media heroes.
It was originally only sold in the UK’s Asda supermarkets, but Aldi recently landed an exclusive deal to stock it for a limited time.
The new stock arrival comes just two months after teens stormed an Asda on the UK’s south coast to buy the product.
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An Aldi spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that some customers were unable to get their hands on this product, however, demand has been extremely high.
“We limited purchases to one of each variant per customer so that as many customers as possible had a chance to buy it.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
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