JOHOR BARU • The supermarket where the Johor Crown Prince spent RM1 million (S$338,000) for other people's groceries struggled to reopen yesterday morning as workers rushed to replenish empty shelves and clear up abandoned trolleys.

The Aeon Tebrau store in Johor finally opened at around 12.45pm yesterday, reported The Star, after Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim paid a surprise visit on Wednesday night and offered to foot the grocery bill for every shopper there, to the tune of RM3,000 each.

Pandemonium had ensued as shoppers grabbed up to three trolleys each and rushed to fill them.

The prince, who was at the mall for less than five minutes, reportedly forked out over RM1 million.

According to The Star, only the vegetable and fish sections were open to the public yesterday afternoon while the remaining sections were still off limits to shoppers. Workers were seen replenishing stock.

Pictures posted on social media yesterday appeared to show dozens of trolleys heaped with goods abandoned at the supermarket's cash tills. The store had brought down its shutters at 8pm on Wednesday after being overwhelmed by crowds as news of the prince's largesse spread.

According to the New Straits Times, many of the abandoned carts were filled with perishables like ice cream, dairy products and other fresh food, which were no longer saleable. They were left behind after the store shut at 10pm.

A member of the supermarket staff told the newspaper they were busy removing the spoiled food and cleaning up the mess.

A worker at a nearby shop, who wanted to be known only as Jessica, said it was a crazy experience for her on Wednesday night.

"I was in the midst of closing the shop at around 9.30pm and saw that people kept on going to the supermarket despite it being closed."

Most of the shelves were restocked and the supermarket was fully operational by 3pm yesterday, reported The Malay Mail.