Marlon McKenzie wanted chocolate badly enough to drive ten minutes for it.
What the former X Factor contestant found at B&M in Burnage, Manchester, was an aisle of bars slumping off the shelves in the heat, and his clip of the carnage has now pulled in more than 872,000 views and 79,000 likes.
“Instantly, it was like being transported straight to hell,” the 43-year-old model tells CreatorZine.
“It was scorching hot and I couldn’t bear to be in there for more than 10 minutes. I was beading with sweat and wiping my brow constantly as it was so unbearable.”
Then he reached the chocolate.
“Once I saw the chocolate, which was flopping down on the shelf, I was shocked. The bars were practically folding in half.”
Air con at the tills, sauna everywhere else
Marlon visited the store on 10 July with his friend and daughter, in the middle of the UK heatwave, with local temperatures sitting at 30C.
There was air conditioning running, he claims, but most of it was aimed at the tills.
“The rest of the store was unbearable,” he says.
“I didn’t see any shop workers on the floor [thankfully]. All the customers were flustered and shocked by the heat.
I got my chocolate bars, picking the ones that weren’t so bad, and got out of there.”
The squeeze test
The clip opens with Marlon wiping his soaked forehead.
“I’ve just stepped foot in here and I’m f**king melting,” he says.
“I’ve actually come all the way to B&M purposefully to get chocolate bars – but this is ridiculous.”
Then comes the product testing. A pack of KitKats gives way in his hand.
A bar of Cadbury’s Marvellous Creations does the same.
A Cadbury & More Biscoff bar folds over the curve of his palm like warm dough.
“Everything is just ruined,” he says, wondering aloud whether the whole lot would end up in the bin.
‘B&M stands for Burn & Melt’
The comments arrived fast. “Didn’t you know? B&M stands for Burn & Melt,” wrote Ollie.
“Surely ac is cheaper than a whole shops worth of melted chocolate,” offered another viewer.
Lucie, who works at a different branch, mounted a defence: “My b and m I work at is fine we have air con all our chocolate isn’t melted it’s fine freezing inside.”
Even Morrisons joined in, posting “Average B&M experience” alongside a picture of SpongeBob engulfed in flames.
“The way you’re squeezing all of them is hilarious,” another user added.
Marlon says he returned a few days later and found the section cleared out.
“It has to be pretty hot in store for chocolate to melt to that point,” he says. “It’s so bad.”
B&M responds
A spokesperson for B&M said: “During periods of exceptionally warm weather, we closely monitor conditions across our stores, regularly check temperatures, and continue to invest in air conditioning and additional cooling measures to help maintain product quality.
“As always, any product that does not meet our strict quality standards is removed from sale.
“We are also taking practical steps to support our colleagues, including more frequent breaks and additional cooling measures, to help keep store teams as comfortable as possible.”
Why It Matters
Marlon’s video cost nothing to make.
A phone, a sweaty forehead and a shelf of collapsing KitKats did the work of a production team, and 872,000 people watched.
Retail fail content has quietly become one of the most reliable formats in the creator economy because the barrier to entry is walking into a shop.
The Morrisons comment is the other half of the story: rival brands now treat viral moments like this as free advertising space, and a well-timed SpongeBob meme from a supermarket social team can earn more goodwill than a paid campaign.
Heatwave content is having a summer across UK social feeds, and brand accounts piling into each other’s comment sections has moved from novelty to standard playbook.
As for what happens next, every B&M with a struggling air con unit is now a potential 800,000-view video.
Somewhere in Britain, someone is filming a shelf right now.
