Often an online food review draws little attention. A store representation said in an e-mail to The Huffington Post, “Walmart sold one pie per second for 72 hours straight last weekend”.
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The chain is suddenly finding itself struggling to keep the sweet treats on its shelves because of a viral video. Apparently his more than 2.2 million YouTube viewers listened. And yes, the Grammy Award-winning artist has her face on boxes of pies that sell for .48 at Wal-Mart. The retail for less than $4 at the store. Despite his new found fame and responsibility for helping to make the pie a best-seller, he’s out of luck when it comes to getting another one of Patti Labelle’s Sweet Potato Pies for the time being: “We love all our customers equally so we can’t give him any special treatment, but we do have lots of thanks and gratitude towards him”, says Forrest Ales.
The man behind the spike in sweet potato pie sales is none other than James Wright, who posted his reaction to tasting the pie for the first time on Facebook in a video that quickly went viral by racking up almost 10 million views.
Wright posted the video November 11.
The page selling Patti LaBelle’s sweet potato pie on Walmart’s website also became the site’s most visited, and Walmart estimates two million pounds of California sweet potatoes will be needed to meet increasing demand.
All this fuss thanks to one review. But get there fast and stock up now: “We’re not sure if more will be available by Thanksgiving but we’re working on it”.
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“This pie is near and dear to my heart”, Thomas said. “Actually, I know a good sweet potato pie because I use this as a benchmark for my grandmother’s”.
