FRAMINGHAM – Stop & Shop stores across Massachusetts had empty shelves on Monday due to a cyberattack.

Stop & Shop shelves empty

People walking into the store ready to stock up before Thanksgiving had to leave empty-handed.

“I can’t buy carrots. I can’t buy lettuce. The vegetables are slim and the meat department is low,” shopper Jim Noto said. “Very disappointing especially this time of the year. It’s just a shame because they are losing a lot of customers.”

“Empty. Completely empty! All of it,” said Maryanne Lambert, who could only get half of her grocery list.

“The produce just wasn’t there. It was awful. What’s going on?” Instacart shopper Tina Diblasi said. She is thinking of taking a vacation from the delivery service until the shelves are stocked again.

Shoppers said they are going to find another store to get their necessities ahead of the upcoming holiday.

Cybersecurity issue

Stop & Shop says it’s a cybersecurity issue affecting its parent company, Ahold Delhaize, and that they have placed signs in stores that tell customers it was because of an IT systems outage. 

“While there may be some limited inventory for certain products, we are working to re-stock our shelves and anticipate item availability to continue to improve over the next few days,” the store said in a statement.

Ahold Delhaize says it is investigating the issue and has told law enforcement about the breach. They are taking some systems offline to protect them.

“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,” Ahold Delhaize said in a statement.

Stop & Shop announced in July that it would be closing 32 stores across five states that were “underperforming.” Seven of those stores were in Massachusetts. The company donated all of the remaining food at the shuttered supermarkets to food shelters near their stores.

“Stop and Shop is a business in some trouble. It changed CEOs in September. They’re closing almost 1 in 10 of their stores even before this. It does seem to be targeting their financial transaction systems so they couldn’t manage payments but honestly, everything is vulnerable,” Professor of Food Economics and Policy at Tufts University in the Friedman School of Nutrition William Masters said.

Paul Burton

Paul Burton is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV News.