STRASBOURG, France: A French supermarket chain’s decision to slash the price of Nutella by 70 percent has sparked frenzy, with shoppers across the country jostling to squirrel away as many jars of the nutty spread as possible in what one worker likened to an orgy.
Video posted online Thursday and testimony from baffled supermarket workers showed long queues forming outside Intermarche supermarkets and chaotic scenes as bargain hunters stormed inside.
“People just rushed in, shoving everyone, breaking things. It was like an orgy,” one employee in the northeastern town of Forbach said, asking to remain anonymous. “We were on the verge of calling the police.”
Another employee in Revigny-sur-Ornain said it was no wonder there was a run on the shelves: “70 percent off? That’s a steal.”
When contacted by AFP, Intermarche apologized to its customers and said it had been “surprised” by the sheer demand.
The chain usually sells Nutella for €4.50 but with the discount jars were going for just €1.41.
Netizens reacted with much merriment over the furor.
“Seriously??!! All this just for Nutella” posted Kenny Le Bon (@KennyLeBon) on Twitter alongside a video of a crowd of shoppers scrambling over a rapidly depleting stand of jars.
“Was gonna get some Sunday. But I don’t wanna die,” added Ruthii Trudie (@ruthii_rawr).
Ferrero, the Italian company that makes Nutella, said the discount decision was taken “unilaterally” by Intermarche and risked creating “confusion and disappointment” for consumers.
French shoppers go nuts for Nutella discount
French shoppers go nuts for Nutella discount
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
