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Shoppers around the country were stuck in “crazy” queues outside Aldi and Lidl Ireland shops as their specials went on sale.
Both supermarkets bring out some of their special buys on Thursdays and people were happy to queue in the rain to get their hands on goods this week.
In Lidl it was summer BBQ equipment and summer garden furniture arriving in stock while Aldi had garden equipment like gazebos and bistro sets.
As Lidl shoppers found out last week, these special buys are ordered months in advance and stock levels are not what would be needed for current demand.
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Some people were standing outside Lidl hours before it opened and still couldn’t get their hands on the garden furniture.
Cork woman Ciara Lynch said: “Never seen anything like the queues I witnessed at 7. 20am outside Lidl this morning.
“I’m sure people camped there overnight, was like queuing for concert tickets. Four stores later, half a tank of petrol wasted and still no garden furniture, home to bed I go.”
Paul Caode tweeted: “Queued from 7am this morning for garden furniture. Got into store only to be told customer’s that queued from 6am got tickets for garden furniture.
“Could staff not have told customers this information while queuing in the cold and rain.”
The company has replied to customers on Twitter and said they unfortunately only had a certain amount of stock in store as it was bought months in advance.
A spokesperson said: “We do not have any current date planned for more stock. We’re sorry about this – these items were forecast for sale months in advance and due to the current situation demand has increased massively.”
There was similar queues outside Aldi stores with customers hoping to get their hands on limited stock.
One shopper said: “Anything that is the madness of the Aldi Garden Event. 40 minutes queuing for nothing. All sold out of everything. “
In line with Government restrictions all stores were implementing social distancing in queues outside and in the amount of people allowed into the stores.
Both Aldi and Lidl also have numerous measures in store to make sure that the risk of coronavirus being spread is minimal.
Lidl have apologized to customers who couldn’t get the garden equipment and said they could not have foreseen the crazy demand when items were ordered.
A Lidl spokesperson told the Irish Mirror: “As with all our non-food promotions, these items were ordered and planned nearly a year in advance of sale. Unfortunately due to the unforeseen circumstances we as a country are now experiencing, we have seen a rapid increase in the level of demand for our gardening promotion this week that we simply could not have anticipated for at the time of ordering.
“We apologize to customers who have been disappointed, and we ask them to be respectful towards our employees who have no control over product availability and are continuing to work hard to provide food and other essential supplies to communities across the country in this challenging time. “
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