It’s a typical phenomenon: right before a public holiday, people pile up at supermarkets to stock up on supplies before all stores close the next day.

Discount supermarket Aldi Süd tackled the Hamsterkauf (massive buying) with humour before Thursday’s public holiday of Fronleichnam in six German states.

SEE ALSO: Fronleichnam: What you should know about Germany's public holiday

“Attention: Thursday is a public holiday. The supply of groceries is ending forever,” they wrote, using the hashtag #Internationalerpaniktag (International Panic Day).

In their post, Aldi also reassured customers that they would re-open just a day later on Friday to fulfil all of their shopping needs.

Their sarcasm hit a real nerve, with over 12,000 likes by Wednesday evening and 10,000 comments. The majority of commenters also had a sense of humour, writing about their shopping plans with a sense of irony.

The logo for Aldi Süd. Photo: DPA

Here were some of the highlights:

“Please let the staff know that I will arrive exactly 5 minutes before closing time on Wednesday in order to do my weekly shopping in a relaxed manner! Thank you in advance”.

“It's good to be prepared. I'll pack my survival kit, and sit it out in the mountains.”

“I can only come after work, but I urgently need vine tomatoes, a cucumber, blueberries, courgettes and tea tree oil. Could you please prepare this for me in Hütterdorf? I would be there around 5:30 pm (right before closing time). Thank you very much”.

Supermarket idiosyncrasies

As we wrote about last October, supermarket shopping in Germany can be a stressful situation even on a normal given day.

SEE ALSO: The complete supermarket survival guide

Shoppers often race through the lines as though they are part of a sporting match, packing the groceries they’ve been haphazardly holding between their arms at a special packing station.

If a new cue opens whilst you’re waiting to pay, shoppers often rush to the new lines without first inquiring to other shoppers if it's okay to cut past them.

The Local partnered with YouTube channel Easy German to speak about the idiosyncrasies of supermarkets, and interview Germans themselves on the streets about what they thought of them.