Nutella Price Cut Causes French Supermarket Brawl Among Shoppers

Shoppers at a French supermarket chain physically fought each other Thursday over 33-ounce jars of discounted Nutella.

Multiple branches of Intermarché offered a 70 percent discount on the hazelnut cocoa spread, which brought down the price from €4.50 ($5.60) to €1.40 ($1.74), BBC News reported. Police were called to the scene after store associates ran into difficulties handling customers as they pushed and shoved each other to obtain the discounted jars of Nutella, however.

"They are like animals," a French shopper told The Guardian. "One woman had her hair pulled. An elderly lady took a box on her head. Another had a bloody hand."

Videos of the heated tension among customers were filmed at several Intermarché locations across France, and the footage eventually made its way online. In some cases, the incidents have been described as "riots."

"Some customers came the night before the promotion to stash the Nutella pots in other places, so to prevent others from taking them," Intermarché branch manager Jean-Marie Daragon told Le Progres, according to USA Today.

An employee for an Intermarché location in Metz claimed that 200 people were lined up outside the store for the discounted Nutella. A second worker from Intermarché's Forbach branch also told AFP: "People just rushed in, shoving everyone, breaking things. It was like an orgy."

Ferrero, the producer of Nutella, distanced themselves from Intermarche's promotion, however.

"We are aware of a number of reported incidents that have occurred as a result of a promotion on Nutella in a French retailer," a Ferrero spokesperson told International Business Times. "While Ferrero provides a recommended retail price, the final cost, as well as any promotions, are set at the sole discretion of retailers."

Born in 1964, Nutella has proven to be a beloved nutty spread worldwide. Its popularity stems from its ability to serve as a healthier substitute for chocolate.

"They never sold it as a surrogate, and this was very clever," Roberta Sassatelli, author of Consumer Culture, told BBC News in 2014. "They could have played on different universal values like, 'This is cheap, this is affordable, this can substitute chocolate.'"

"They played upon,'This is natural, it contains nuts so it's better than those that don't contain them,' " Sassatelli added.