Shoppers take supermarket by assault to get toilet paper discount in Romania

A Lidl supermarket in Braila, a city in Eastern Romania, was taken by assault on Saturday by tens of buyers looking to fill their shopping carts with toilet paper. The toilet paper that was on the shelf in the store finished in minutes, so the shoppers forced their way into the store’s deposit and took some more. Some clients took up to 10 packs of toilet paper, with each pack containing 10 rolls. Others filmed the scenes and sent them to local TV stations or posted them on Facebook.

A pack with ten rolls of toilet paper of that kind normally sells at Lidl for RON 7.62 (EUR 1.67) but on Saturday, the retailer had it at a 41% discount, namely RON 4.49 (less than EUR 1). Thus, those who bought 10 packs managed to save RON 31.3 (EUR 6.9). It may not seem a lot, but in Romania more than 2 million people make RON 1.065/EUR 234 per month (the net minimum wage), which means they have RON 35.5 (EUR 7.8) to spend for each day in a month. Romanians are generally very much into discounts for everything. It’s not unusual to see hundreds of people thronging whenever a new hypermarket, supermarket, or do-it-yourself store opens in Romania to buy frying pans, meat mincers, or drilling machines. Even if most people do not need those items for immediate use, they say they buy them just to have them in the house whenever they may need them. editor@romania-insider.com (Video source: De Braila on Youtube)