The two-day Pampers promotion, launched by French supermarket chain Intermarché on Tuesday, reduced the price of a pack of Pampers nappies from €23.95 (£21.01) to €7.18 (£6.30).
Sales staff couldn’t cope with the hysteria when hundreds of queuing customers stormed the Intermarche supermarket chain when doors opened, and were forced to call for back-up from officers to keep the peace.
One shopper at the Metz Vallière chain in north-east France said: “I arrived at 8.40am and there was nothing left. I saw women come to blows. It’s unbelievable.
“The store was forced to limit shoppers to one pack of nappies each in order to restore calm.”
The manager of the store told Le Républicain Lorrain: “It was horrible! The situation quickly spiralled out of control.
“Some 250 people were waiting outside for the store to open. Women started fighting [over the cheap nappies], and we even had to call the police. My staff just couldn’t cope.”
The nappy promotion continued today, although this time around some Intermarché stores, including the one in Metz Vallière, asked local police officers to patrol the supermarket to prevent further scuffles from breaking out.
The hysterical scenes took place just days after the bizarre ‘Nutella riots’, which were also triggered by an Intermarché discount.
Last Thursday, the supermarket chain reduced the price of the much-loved chocolate and hazelnut spread – a breakfast staple in France – from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40 (£1.22).
Shock videos uploaded on social media showed shoppers pushing and shoving each other and pulling each other’s hair in order to grab hold of as many cheap Nutella pots as possible.
Both special offers were part of a wider marketing operation launched by Intermarché to coincide with the January sales called ‘Les quatre semaines les moins chères de France’ (France’s four cheapest weeks).
On Tuesday, France’s finance ministry said its consumer affairs and anti-fraud body, the DGCCRF, would investigate whether the Nutella promotion violated the country’s trading laws.
France has strict rules regarding the size of discounts retailers can put on products outside of the official biannual sales period. Investigators will want to know how much Intermarché paid for the breakfast spread in order to decide whether the promotion was a sale or an instance of product dumping.
The finance ministry has not yet said whether it would be investigating the nappy promotion.