Shoppers fight over discount meat ‘like dogs’

FOOTAGE of a group of shoppers fighting over cheap meats at the deli counter “like a pack of dogs” has gone viral on Facebook.

FOOTAGE of a group of shoppers fighting over cheap meats at the deli counter “like a pack of dogs” has gone viral on Facebook.

The video, uploaded by Facebook user Johnny Lester, shows a group of bargain-hunters at UK supermarket Tesco earlier this week.

The group push and shove each other to get the 20p (40c) meats, with one man even sticking his head between another’s legs.

“I can’t believe this. I actually can’t believe this,” Mr Lester says in the video, which was filmed at around 7pm as supermarket staff put out the reduced food.

I actually cannot believe what I have just seen in tesco!! People waiting for the reduced food to be brought out, fair enough. But the staff have to tell them to wait and stay back like you would a dog while your preparing its dinner, then have to be told to let the staff out so they don't get crushed when every one piles in....literally, how there was not a fight is beyond me. I'm actually lost for words that this can happen like that in a supermarket and is let to happen nightly.....you have to watch the video to believe it.......

Posted by Johnny Lester on Monday, 15 June 2015

“Apparently it is the same every night,” the 32-year-old personal trainer told The Sun.

“I had heard about it before but hadn’t seen it. I was shocked. The staff brought the tray of meat and said ‘get back or I’ll take it away’ like you would say to hungry puppies.

“People were trying to grab pieces before they were put out then staff put it on a tray on the floor and people dived in like it was a rugby scrum.

“I couldn’t believe it. There was a little girl there and I thought she might get trampled. People had no idea what they were grabbing but were filling up their baskets.”

He said he had heard of fights breaking out and even a pregnant woman being shoved aside. The video has been viewed more than two million times and shared nearly 30,000 times.

Some Facebook users condemned the scene, while others were more sympathetic. “Unfortunately some people need to get what they can at a price they can afford and store it for a later date,” wrote one user. “Is it really the people at fault or the system as a whole?”

Another wrote: “Shame on whoever filmed this. Think yourself lucky that you’re not living on the bread line like many hundreds of thousands of people in this country.

“Only have the government to blame for the state of this country! Do you think they want to be behaving like this? Maybe they have to!”