The Welsh village of Cyffylliog was “invaded” by bargain-hunting shoppers looking for a non-existent Aldi supermarket that internet trolls added to Google Maps as a prank.
The “add a missing place” feature on Google Maps can be very useful when used correctly, but when abused by pranksters, it can cause headaches for entire communities. Case in point, Cyffylliog, a quiet Welsh village in Denbighshire whose inhabitants have seen a flood of confused shoppers looking for a “phantom Aldi supermarket” that only exists as a pin on Google Maps. Believed to have been added by a local internet troll, the listing has so far led thousands of people to a grassy field, tens of miles away from the nearest checkout lane. After a milk truck became stuck on a narrow village truck trying to deliver its cargo to the phantom Aldi, locals said that they have been visited by vans trying to deliver groceries and bread to the non-existent supermarket, as well as confused shoppers led there by their smartphones.
Photo: Marques Thomas/Unsplash
“We’ve had people knocking on doors asking where the Aldi is, delivery vans with groceries trying to find a nonexistent loading dock and even a bloke with a pallet of bread who thought he’d been hired to stock shelves!” one local woman said.
The phantom Aldi of Cyffylliog has inspired dozens of hilarious memes that have been doing the rounds online for weeks, including photos of visitors holding shopping baskets while staring blankly at a sign that reads: “Welcome to Cyffylliog. No Aldi here. Try Denbigh,” and tourists digging for “Aldi treasure”. The locals, however, are not amused.
“Now we have an endless stream of day trippers and holidaymakers turning up and looking confused,” a local farmer told reporters, adding that the chaos reached new heights last week when a large milk tanker got stuck on a narrow village street trying to locate the phantom Aldi.
Photo: Priscilla du Preez/Unsplash
“It’s one thing having tourists turn up looking for Aldi,” local man Dafydd Hughes said. “But when you’ve got a lorry full of milk clogging up the road, you start to question what’s happening in the world.”
Locals have been trying to get the pin removed from Google Maps for a while, but it was only after Aldi itself became involved that the miracle actually happened. After news of the milk tanker getting stuck in Cyffylliog went viral, an Aldi spokesperson confirmed that the company had no plans of opening a store in the village and that it would be working with Google to have the listing removed from Maps.
“Honestly, if we had a pound for every car that’s shown up, we could’ve opened our own Aldi by now,” Hughes joked.
Google Maps has proved instrumental in solving tricky murder cases and capturing dangerous fugitives, but the platform has also proven easy to manipulate in various ways over the years.
