Resume

The video posted by News Front, which according to its description shows panic buying at an ALDI supermarket because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, was in fact shot in 2011.

Analysis

On 18 March 2020, News Front published an article entitled “The ‘Civilized’ West – Stomach-related Panic in Different Countries.” News Front writes that “under the motto of fighting against the coronavirus, people are being put in danger by the panic hoarding of products in supermarkets.” Furthermore, it provides videos which show a panic situation in the shops of different western countries.

The article reads that the first video was shot in Italy. The video’s title on YouTube is as follows: “Panic-Buying at ALDI Supermarket Amid the Coronavirus Outbreak.” Initially, this video was published on 29 February 2020 on Twitter where Germany was indicated as the location of the video.

In the following days, the video was shared multiple times in different countries and through different social media. Although there have been cases of panic buying around the world because of the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), Agence France Presse’s (AFP) Fact Checking website verified the video and concluded that it was false. Bellingcat has also verified the video’s origin.

An identical video, which was uploaded in 2011, can be accessed on YouTube. According to the video’s description, it was shot on 31 January 2011 in an ALDI supermarket in Kiel and shows crowds during a special sale.

Both France Presse and Bellingcat identify the whereabouts of the supermarket in the video. The F.B.I beauty salon (a German beauty salon chain) also features next to the ALDI supermarket in the video. ALDI and the F.B.I store are next to each other and are located precisely in Kiel’s Citti-Park shopping mall (see at Citti-Park’s website: link 1 and link 2). The pictures from Google Maps provide additional evidence. The picture from 2019 shows that F.B.I’s logo has been changed whilst the picture from 2016 shows that the logo is the same one as in the video. Therefore, the video could not possibly have been shot after 2016. Bellingcat also makes an identical conclusion.