The store had to impose a two-jar limit to make sure everybody got their fair share.
"We've had people come in and complain because they can only grab two jars. I can only imagine if there's no limit it would all be gone by now."
He had heard of a store in Auckland which opened at midnight especially to sell the spread, but things weren't as intense in Masterton.
"We did have someone try to get into the store at two minutes to seven and the first thing they grabbed was Marmite."
Most people knew Marmite would be back on sale yesterday, thanks to news reports and social media, so they were expecting sales. "We've been that long without it."
Two people grabbed jars of Marmite while the Times-Age was interviewing Mr Corlett, and one person opted for Vegemite. A woman bought a jar for her daughter who had been "waiting" for it to go back on sale. Mr Corlett bought himself a jar too. A 250g jar of Marmite was selling at New World yesterday for $4.19.
Sanitarium general manager Pierre van Heerden said 500,000 jars had been made and he hoped that would meet demand.
It was difficult to predict where people would shop so some areas might sell out, he said. "What we will be doing is encouraging our consumers to go online to our Marmite Facebook page to ask people in their areas [who] know the stock in their stores to let everyone know and then we can hopefully spread the joy around." Additional reporting, APNZ
