For once, shoppers who prefer physical media may have found themselves on the right side of the “digital divide.”
For the second time in the past six months, Ahold Delhaize-owned grocery stores in the Northeast experienced technology problems that interfered with shoppers’ ability to pay for their purchases, place online orders and clip digital coupons.
This time, the impacted chains were Stop & Shop, Giant Food and the similarly-named Giant Food Stores. And this time, the company insists it’s not due to a cyberattack.
“We are experiencing technical issues and during this time some customers may experience payment issues and loyalty transactions may be impacted and/or inaccessible. We are working to correct this as soon as possible,” read a notice placed on the stores’ websites this weekend.
Pennsylvania-based Giant Food Stores said Sunday that it was unable to accept some debit and credit cards at store checkouts. Some stores posted hastily-printed signs saying they were accepting cash payments only. Harrisburg’s WHTM-TV also reported that customers said their digital coupons weren’t working.
In New England, meanwhile, Stop & Shop customers reported similar problems. Boston’s WBZ-TV showed scenes from one local store of full shopping carts abandoned at the register.
Spokespersons for the various impacted chains say the problems have all been resolved. “We experienced an IT systems issue that impacted check out for our customers this weekend. Confirming that the issue was resolved last night,” Stop & Shop spokesperson Jennifer Barr told Coupons in the News. “Yesterday, we had an issue that impacted select transactions,” Giant’s Ashley Flower said. “Our stores remained open and continued to serve customers. Our IT teams worked quickly to resolve the matter and restore transaction services.”
Earlier, Flower told WHTM that the issues were “systems related, not a cybersecurity attack.” That may be reassuring to shoppers, considering what happened last fall. That’s when more severe IT outages struck several other Ahold Delhaize-owned stores, including Hannaford and Food Lion, along with Stop & Shop again. Those problems impacted not only shoppers’ ability to pay, order online and clip digital coupons, but stores’ ability to keep their shelves stocked and even to stay online. Hannaford’s website and app were down for a week and a half.
Ahold Delhaize issued a statement at the time, saying it had “detected a cybersecurity issue within its U.S. network” and they were “taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue.”
Many shoppers were concerned their personal information, payment methods and loyalty data may have been exposed. And a couple of weeks ago, the company offered its first public update, saying those concerns may have been valid.
“Based on our investigation to date, we believe certain files were taken from some of our internal U.S. business systems in connection with the prior cybersecurity issue,” Ahold Delhaize said in a statement. “Our teams have been working diligently to determine what information may have been affected and we will notify affected individuals.” So far, the only specific information that the Netherlands-based company says may have been exposed in the breach was “certain Dutch employment data,” but their investigation continues. “The security of our customers, associates and vendor partners is a top priority,” their statement concluded.
There’s no indication that this weekend’s tech issues were anywhere near as bad as last fall’s. But for East Coast shoppers who don’t carry around cash or paper coupons, it was a bad weekend to go grocery shopping. And shoppers who are not digitally-savvy, who’ve been advocating for paper alternatives to digital deals, can only say “I told you so.”
Image source: Giant Food Stores
