Coles reopens nationwide after massive tech glitch shutters stores

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Coles supermarkets around Australia have reopened after being forced to close their doors due a massive technical glitch and the company is now extending lures to bring regulars back to their stores.

A Coles spokesperson said the temporarily closure on Friday was due to a technical issue with processing payments and work was feverishly underway to fix the problem.

The company apologised to its customers for the inconvenience, adding Coles Express and Coles Liquor stores remained open for trade.

A few hours later, the spokesperson said supermarkets had reopened for trade.

“A technical issue with our point of sale system meant we were briefly unable to process transactions this afternoon,” the statement read.

“To thank customers for their patience while our team worked hard to get us back up and running, Coles supermarket shoppers will receive triple flybuys points on their food and groceries this weekend.

“And to help customers who were unable to complete their shopping on Friday afternoon, Coles Online is offering free home delivery on orders of $50 and above until Sunday 18 October.”

Regular Coles shoppers were seen flocking to Woolworths after the closures and Macquarie Business School department of marketing associate professor Jana Bowden warned that would happen.

“IT fail delivers @woolworths a silver platter opportunity to capitalise on the service failure and take market share,” she tweeted.

“How many consumers will be switching brands today?

“IT fails on same day as #Woolworths opens first e-store to increase reliability and efficiency.”

The Woolworths e-store at Carrum Downs in southeast Melbourne has been added to the back of the shop and contains picking technology to help deliver online orders faster.

Woolworths said rumours on talkback radio suggesting its network of stores had also shut for the same reason were incorrect.

“Our payment systems are up and running. All stores continue to trade as normal,” the retail giant said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for German discount supermarket chain ALDI said the company’s stores were unaffected by the outage.

Period9 Oct 2020

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