Thousands of shoppers have been left frustrated after the ever-popular hanging egg chair from Aldi sold out within 45 minutes on Sunday morning.
Aldi, known for its low prices and quirky furniture items, put its popular range of garden furniture, including its popular hanging egg chair and popular patio heater, on sale on its website at 8am – and by 8.04am there were already more than 24,500 people waiting in the queue to get onto the website.
By 8.11am there were 28,661 people in the queue though not all of these shoppers would have been shopping for garden furniture.
At the time a message on the Aldi supermarket website said: "You're in the queue. We're very sorry but there are currently lots of people trying to access the Aldi website.
"We've automatically placed you in a queue. Don't worry about refreshing – this page will update automatically as soon as you enter the site.
"New Aldi garden products on sale now: limited stock, form an orderly queue. Heads up, during busy times order confirmation emails can take a few hours to pop up in your inbox."
Other shoppers were met with an error message as the website struggled to cope with heavy traffic.
Even for those fortunate enough to get onto the Aldi website on Sunday morning by 8.45am the site would no longer allow customers to add the hanging egg chair item to their shopping basket.
A message on the site said: "Sorry you've missed out, this item will be back in stock soon" and the option to add the item to the online shopping basket was unavailable.
The best-selling chair is priced at £189.99 or £199.99 with a cover – regular Aldi shoppers will notice this is a £40 increase compared to last year's price.
The popular piece of furniture comes in a stylish rattan design, complete with comfortable cushions., while its cover is water-resistant and features a zip so you can easily protect your egg chair from the elements.
Alongside the hanging egg chair other popular special buys included the rattan corner sofa and Kamado BBQ as well as Aldi's patio heater and wooden mini greenhouse.
When did the Hanging Egg Chair sell out?
We got on the website at 8am and were placed into the online queue.
At 8.25am we were able to access the Aldi website and able to place the "Gardenline Small Hanging Egg Chair" in ourr shopping basket for £189.99.
The website explained that the item is an "online exclusive" and customers can only purchase one of the item.
A message on the website said: "Orders are restricted to one per person for this product and you will not be able to add more than one unit to your basket. Any attempts to place multiple separate orders for this product will be cancelled and may result in pending charges."
The Aldi website listed an estimated dispatch date of March 4.
When viewing the online basket Aldi had added a £9.95 delivery charge and explained the item isn't available for delivery yet. Each shopper who had managed to secure the hanging egg chair had 30 minutes to input their payment data or the item would become available for others.
By 8.45am the hanging egg chair had completely sold out – stopping thousands of customers from adding it to their online shopping basket.
People weren't happy
While many shoppers were stuck on the "You're in the queue" page of the Aldi website others managed to get on to the site quickly – only for the egg chair they desperately wanted to already be sold out.
On social media, Aldi wrote: "Aldi? More like Al-nighttttttttttttttttttttt," on Saturday night to which one Aldi shopper, from the South East of England, responded on Sunday morning: "All-nighter for this egg chair. Logged on at 4 [am] and then 6 [am] and after a long q [sic], I get this at 7.47am. When do you actually stock?" and shared a screenshot of the Aldi website, which showed the hanging egg chair and a message which read: "Sorry you've missed out, this item will be back in stock soon. Online exclusive! Not available in store."
Other shoppers managed to add the item into their shopping basket shortly before 8.30am.
Meanwhile, sharing a screengrab of the Aldi website which showed "Number of users in queue ahead of you: 28661," another Twitter user joked: "Everyone after THAT egg chair again!"
Angered by the egg chair selling out so quickly, one social media user claimed the item is a "gimmick" to get shoppers to visit the Aldi website.
The shopper said: "Aldi - typical sold-out by 8.30am online, I'm sure it's a just a gimic [sic] to get people to visit the website - well I now unsubscribed from your emails."
Another shopper complained: "[I was hoping to buy an] egg chair. But they seem to be sold out before they are available to purchase!"
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