Will the Lidl chain of stores have to review its marketing strategy? Several times promotions have led to riot scenes in front of stores. We remember the crowds observed during the promotion on a pressure cooker connected in 2019 or even during that on pots of Nutella in 2018. Wednesday, at Orgeval in the Yvelines, a batch of PlayStation 4 sold at 95 euros again unleashed the crowds. The gendarmerie had to intervene to disperse the customers.
1H before the opening of Lidl and already more than 100 people for the PS4 at 95 € (some arrived at 2h)
Stay at home and install the Dealabs app, we will send you a notification as soon as it is possible to catch it at a good price without ending up at the
host ➡ https://t.co/SLcDVXQ5aG ⬅ pic.twitter.com/ey64AOl5Ax
About 500 people waited impatiently for the doors of the Lidl d'Orgeval store to open on Wednesday morning. Some were even present the night before to take advantage of this great promotion on consoles, sold off three times cheaper than normal. The crowd gathered in front of the gates.
>> Find all of Europe 1's editorial newspapers in replay and podcast here
Intervention of the gendarmerie and cancellation of the sale of PS4
But when the Lidl doors opened, the store managers changed their minds and decided to keep the doors closed. They deemed it too dangerous to open. But outside, the customers stayed, and got impatient. Faced with this excitement and agitation, the gendarmerie finally intervened around eight in the morning to manage and disperse the crowd. A gendarme was injured by a bottle spray. And the police responded with tear gas.
Announcement at the microphone, apparently the PS4s "went back to their supplier" # Lidlpic.twitter.com / ouAHcb9zCd
- Dealabs.com (@Dealabs) June 17, 2020Lidl said on Twitter that the channel did not expect such a craze, and that similar operations had gone very well so far.
No communication from us was made on this operation but a personal photo was unfortunately relayed many times.
Similar sales had already been set up on other openings and had gone very well (2/3).
No communication was also made officially. The news leaked, causing the influx of customers outside the store doors which are still closed Wednesday noon, even if the situation returned to normal. The sale of the PS4 at a bargain price has been canceled.