By Dan Satherley
The great Marmite shortage of 2012 is about to come to an end – but only in the Christchurch suburb of Merivale.
A supermarket closed for seven weeks due to earthquake strengthening has revealed it has more than 800 jars of the stuff – and they're going to give nearly half of them away.
The rest are going be sold to raise money for charity.
This afternoon, Fresh Choice supermarket in Merivale Mall will be selling jars of the highly sought-after Kiwi favourite to raise money for the Christchurch Women's Refuge.
"We're trying to raise $5000 for the Women's Refuge, so we might get there, we might not, but for them every little bit helps, you know," says store manager Rikkie Tibbots.
The first 150 through the door from 3:30pm with any denomination banknote can get themselves a 500g jar of black gold.
"We bought it before Sanitarium ran out, and then we got closed due to the mall needing earthquake strengthening," says Mr Tibbots.
"We've just had it tucked away in our store room. We've always known we've had it, but we've just been working out what we want to do with it."
Over the next two weeks, Fresh Choice will be giving 26 jars away every day.
"Just spend anything you want, fill out your receipt and you can go in the draw to win a jar of Marmite," says Mr Tibbots.
At the same time, you can vote for which charity you'd like to see get some Marmite of their own – Christchurch Women's Refuge, Canterbury Earthquake Children's Trust, Nurse Maude Christchurch or Autism NZ's Canterbury branch.
Each charity will get an amount of Marmite proportional to their vote.
But why give it all away – surely, with more than 800 jars, they could donate some to charity, and still have plenty to cash in?
"To be honest, we didn't really want to sell it," says Mr Tibbots.
"We see it more as giving back to the community. Down here in Christchurch, over the last 18 months [we have] struggled a bit with earthquakes and whatnot, and we see it as something that just probably lifts the spirits of everybody here, you know?"
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