Shoppers have described scenes of ‘absolute chaos’ as adults pushed and shoved children as young as seven to get their hands bottles of Prime energy drink.
Hundreds of people across the UK queued on Thursday morning (29 December) to buy viral energy drink, after it was made available at Aldi supermarkets.
Footage captured on video shows chaotic scenes in a number of the discount stores 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 is selling for knockdown price of £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 quarter to 8 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 Yorks., 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 Yorks., 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.
Sussex Live reported that Crawley’s Aldi sold out of the drink in less than 30 minutes after the store opened at 8am on Thursday morning (29 December). By 8.50am, Aldi’s management displayed signs outside the store informing customers that all Prime stock had been sold out.
The beverage brand was founded by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul in 2022.
KSI, a musician and part of the YouTube group The Sidemen, has more than 24 million subscribers internationally. Paul, who is a US-based YouTube star, who has more than 23 million subscribers.
Prime arrived in US stores in 2022, but the drink landed on Aldi supermarket shelves on Thursday 29 December, priced at £1.99 per bottle.
Aldi has been limiting the purchase of the drink to one of each flavour per person to ensure “as many people as possible get the opportunity to buy the drink”.
Bottles are now trading hands for more than the £1.99 retail price, with one Twitter user revealing that a local corner shop was selling the drink for £24.99 per bottle.
The drink is sold in different flavours including Blue Raspberry, Grape, Orange, Tropical Punch and Lemon Lime.
Prime’s official website describes it as a “naturally flavoured” beverage containing 10 per cent coconut water, antioxidants and electrolytes.
Additional reporting by SWNS
