Cyberattack leads to bare shelves at Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Food Lion and more
A cyberattack impacting grocery chains Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Hannaford, and more, has led to delayed shipments and bare shelves at dozens of locations across the US.
Images by Shutterstock
A massive cybersecurity incident at the US division of global food retail giant Ahold Delhaize has impacted operations at several of its national grocery brand chains, including Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Hannaford, and more – and now customers are reporting bare grocery shelves at dozens of locations across the New England region.
The Massachusetts-based US division of Ahold Delhaize announced it had “recently detected a cybersecurity issue within its US network” on its website last Friday, November 8th, and immediately notified law enforcement.
Bringing in outside cybersecurity experts, the company said it was forced to take some systems offline to isolate them from further damage.
“This issue and subsequent mitigating actions have affected certain Ahold Delhaize USA brands and services including a number of pharmacies and certain e-commerce operations,” the November 8th statement said.
In an update sent to Cybernews on Friday, November 15th, the company said, “While we have largely returned to providing the level of support that our customers expect across our brands, certain customers may still experience service delays or interruptions.”
One of the world's largest food retail groups and leaders in the supermarket industry, Ahold Delhaize USA is the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast and the fourth largest grocery retail group in the US.
The company’s five major US brands include Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop, serving a total of 63 million customers each week.
Ahold Delhaize uses an omnichannel customer-centric business model to integrate all of a brand's channels – including physical stores, apps, websites, social media, and more – which could explain why all of its US supermarket chains have been experiencing IT difficulties since last week.
Cybernews was unable to load both the Stop & Shop and Hannaford websites on Friday. The Food Lion and Giant sites were loading without issue on Friday, although earlier reports had stated they were also experiencing problems.
Shoppers report bare grocery shelves
The company stressed that “each of Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands' stores are open and serving customers,” yet there are social media and local news reports of empty shelves and store clerks without answers throughout the New England region.
“All over New England the food chain Stop and Shop and its pharmacies have been hacked since right before the election. Shelves are bare and no one working in the stores can explain why. Shoppers personal information has been compromised. It’s really odd, “ posted X user Diane E on Thursday.
Industry publication Grocery Drive also reported on Thursday that several Stop & Shop chain locations from Quincy, Massachusetts – ironically the same town as where the company is based in the US – were "grappling with empty boxes and cleared-out shelves," as well as "widespread out-of-stocks" in the fresh food departments.
Some grocery managers have told customers that the cybersecurity issue had impacted truck shipments and the stores were not receiving scheduled deliveries.
Stop & Shop supermarkets across the state have bare shelves due to a cybersecurity issue.https://t.co/8boq2ulNsm pic.twitter.com/Jxxg7UgcEb
undefined WTNH News 8 (@WTNH) November 12, 2024
So far no cybercriminal group has come forward to claim the attack and Ahold Delhaize has not revealed if any sensitive customer or employee information has been compromised, as social media rumors have implied.
The company's official statement further explained the food retailer would continue to "take actions to further protect our IT systems," and that the "security of our customers, associates, and partners is a top priority.”
The Dutch-Belgion parent company (Ahold Delhaize) was founded in 2016, is headquartered in the Netherlands, and has a total of 16 store brands across nine countries, including names like Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Alfa Beta in Greece, and Mega Image in Romania.
Only US supermarket brands are said to be affected.