We went to extreme lengths to get Prime drinks & keep kids happy – from using disguises to paying seven times the price
THERE were chaotic scenes in Aldi recently, as customers scrambled to get their hands on the sports drink Prime Hydration.
But it isn’t just kids who are going crazy for the cult beverage — adults are obsessed, too.
The drink — created by social media stars Logan Paul and KSI — is priced at £1.99 per 500ml bottle and comes in seven flavours.
A caffeinated version for over-18s is due to be released in April.
But super fans and parents desperate to please kids are paying more than ten times the recommended retail price to get their hands on some through sites including eBay.
Single mum-of-two Aimy Dennis, 29, paid seven times the recommended price for the drink because her son Amari, five, was so desperate to try it.
The bar worker, who lives in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, with Amari and his brother Izaiah, 20 months, says: “Amari first heard about Prime a couple of weeks before Christmas from his half-brother, Freddie, who is 14.
“Freddie said boys at school were selling capfuls for £2 a go and everyone loved it.
“Amari was desperate to try it, and the fact the creators KSI and Logan Paul are also boxers sealed it, as Amari does Muay Thai boxing.
“We went into countless shops but none had any. He was so disappointed.”
‘Feeling sick’
Aimy kept searching and when she spotted two bottles at a local shop, she snapped them up.
“It was as though we’d found the golden ticket to visit Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory,” she says.
“I asked the shopkeeper for two . . . when he asked me for £29.98 I was absolutely staggered.
“He was charging £14.99 for each one, when they should be £1.99.
“I couldn’t put them back because Amari was so happy.
“I went back to the car feeling sick that I’d been so ripped off.”
Back home, Amari tried a sip of both flavours — meta moon and ice pop — and was instantly put off, refusing to finish either bottle.
“He’d built it up so much, thinking it would be the best thing imaginable, but it was just very ‘meh’ for him,” she says.
“At least he’s over the craze now, and I’m no longer panicking about finding Prime.”
The original drink, which contains ten per cent coconut water, electrolytes, and B vitamins, has zero sugar or caffeine and around only 20 calories per bottle.
It launched in America a year ago and the hype was so huge, it sold out online within hours.
When the drink arrived at Asda stores in the UK last summer, stock continued to fly off the shelves.
Amid rocketing demand, a newsagent in Wakefield, West Yorks, was reportedly flogging individual bottles for up to £24 each.
These high mark-ups are something Aimy strongly disagrees with.
“It’s exploiting kids swept up in the craze,” she says.
“I know women who felt Christmas was ruined because all their kids wanted was a Prime drink and they couldn’t find them.
“They felt under so much pressure they would have paid anything.
“I’m a single mum and work part-time, so I need to budget carefully.
“I could have spent that £30 on necessities like gas and food.”
I asked the shopkeeper for two . . . when he asked me for £29.98, I was absolutely staggered
Mum Aimy
Edwina Clark, 37, was so desperate to buy Prime for her son Mason, 14, she tried 20 Asda supermarkets — visiting six in one afternoon.
The council worker, also mum to Ariana, 16, lives in Doncaster, South Yorks, with partner David, 40, and has no regrets.
She says: “I have lived, breathed and slept this drink and done everything in my power to get it for Mason.
“He first started going on and on about it three months ago and asked me to buy it every time I went to my local Asda. But it was always out of stock.
“Seeing the look of disappointment on his face, I promised I’d get him some.”
Determined, Edwina drove 200 miles over the next few days trying to locate the drink.
She managed to lay her hands on one bottle of the blue raspberry flavour and was so delighted with Mason’s reaction, she made it her mission to find more.
Edwina says: “I tried 20 different Asda stores within a ten-mile radius looking for it.
“I’d get there early and head straight for the drinks aisle.
“I bought it by the crate. Mason told me he wanted to save his pocket money to buy the drinks and sell them on to his mates.
“He started getting up early to queue at Asda before anyone else got there. Then he’d sell it for £4 a bottle or £7.50 for two, making a tidy profit.
“I wasn’t annoyed — I admired his business acumen.
‘It’s bonkers’
“He is still trying to buy and sell Prime, but it’s getting even harder to source it. If I hear of new stock, I drive him there to buy it.
“I know it’s bonkers, but we do what we can to make our kids happy. If he’s learning about business in the meantime, even better.”
Initially, Asda was the only UK stockist, but on December 29 Prime was made available in Aldi as one of its “special buys”.
The chain’s Crawley store ran out just 30 minutes after opening, with shoppers queueing round the block to get their hands on crates.
When Asda began limiting their customers to three bottles each from October, mum Kate Andrews, 43, wasn’t prepared to let rules stand in her way.
She wore a disguise to get her hands on extra bottles for son Toby, 13.
I wore a hat to disguise myself so we could go back in pretending to be different customers
Mum Kate
Kate lives in Gloucester with company director husband Mark, 43, and is also mum to Wilf, ten, and Bluebell, four.
She has bought 20-30 bottles of Prime over the last three months and says: “All of Toby’s friends were posting about Prime on social media. It was the newest, fashionable thing.
“Only the cool kids seemed to be able to get it and I saw how disappointed he was that he hadn’t yet tried it.
“I tried getting to Asda early in the morning but could only ever get one or two bottles.
“Toby loved the taste and wanted more, but it was always sold out.”
When Toby arrived home from school one day and told Kate he’d paid a friend £8.50 out of his pocket money for a single bottle, she wasn’t impressed and came up with a plan.
She says: “I wasn’t happy and said we needed to get it for ourselves.
“That night, I drove Toby and three of his friends to our local Asda.
“They were rationing the drink to three bottles per customer, so we took a different set of clothes.”
After buying their quota, Kate and the kids went back to the car and changed into different outfits.
She recalls: “I wore a hat to disguise myself so we could go back in pretending to be different customers.
“It worked and we were able to buy double the amount.
“The kids were ecstatic that we’d duped the security guards.
“I never thought I’d find myself getting changed into a disguise in a supermarket car park just to get my hands on some kids’ drinks.
“It seems ridiculous but they had got so excited and it was fun.
“I felt a bit of a criminal but I’d do it all again to keep Toby happy.”
‘IT TASTES LIKE DODGY COCKTAIL’
MUM Julie Cook, 45, from Hampshire, tried Prime and wasn’t impressed. But her son Alex, 14, loved it . . .
“When Alex told me about a new drink called Prime I rolled my eyes.
“But he went on and on about it. Then I saw social media posts from other parents driving all over the place to get their child a bottle.
“Every time I got to a shop it was out of stock, but Alex managed to buy one from a friend who was selling them for more than double the price at £5 per drink, and excitedly brought it home.
“It was the ice pop flavour in the red, white and blue bottle.
I read the back, thinking it would be packed with sugar. But surprisingly it wasn’t.
“It was ten per cent coconut water, full of electrolytes and B vitamins and had zero sugar. It’s only around 20 cals per bottle.
“Alex popped the cap off and had a swig. His face lit up. ‘Mmm, tropical,’ he said.
“I asked for a tiny sip. It was a strange taste – like nothing I’d ever tried before.
“There were strong notes of coconut, a tropical taste and something of the dodgy holiday pre-mixed cocktail about it.
“Maybe I’m not their target audience, but I wasn’t a fan. ‘Yuck!’ I said.
“‘Mum, it’s amazing,’ Alex cried, before downing the rest.
“He’s since kept the bottle for posterity – I hear a lot of kids do this. Even the bottle is a status symbol.
“I still can’t see what all the fuss is about. And I definitely won’t be scrambling and scuffling with other parents in Aldi any time soon.”