Kevin the Carrot: why are Aldi shoppers going wild for a stuffed root vegetable?

The toy has proved so popular that customers were said to be fighting in the aisles to get one. It’s a shame this never happens with real carrots

When the end of the world arrives – my money is on the first week of February – and we’re all busy gnashing our teeth and crying “Why didn’t we see the signs?”, someone is bound to mention Kevin the Carrot. But by then it will be too late.

If you happened to be at your local Aldi before dawn on Thursday, you could have witnessed this harbinger of doom for yourself. Shoppers queued in their dozens in Knutsford. They shredded boxes in Greenock. Across the country, mobs of shoppers pushed and shoved and jostled one another in a bid to secure a cuddly toy shaped like a root vegetable.

Kevin the Carrot, the star of Aldi’s animated Christmas adverts, comes in two sizes – regular and giant – but after the latter sold out online in the early hours of Monday, in-store chaos was definitely in store later in the week. One customer tweeted: “This is not a drill, there are people in Aldi’s fighting over Kevin the carrot toys!” and within hours, Kevins were being offered on eBay for hundreds of pounds.

It’s not as if Aldi didn’t see this coming. Kevin has been popular since he was introduced in 2016. There were similar problems with shortages last year. This year, it branded the release date as “Orange Thursday”. Hundreds of thousands of Kevins were shipped to branches, and purchases were limited to two per customer. This, it’s worth pointing out, never happens with actual carrots.

The problem, judging by the anecdotal evidence, was an unforeseen demand for supporting characters, including Kevin’s tomato friend Tiny Tom, and his nemesis Russell Sprout.

“We got here just as they opened,” a disappointed customer in Grimsby told the Daily Mail. “We were wanting to get the sprout but they were all gone within minutes.”

In Wollaston, Northamptonshire, it was said, the tomatoes and the sprouts were sold out before the doors even opened. “Staff were clearing all of them out for themselves,” one angry shopper tweeted. “This is disgusting.”

What’s even more disturbing is that some customers have come to enjoy the annual free-for-all. “It’s tradition now,” said one.

And people complain about having to vote during the winter.