A number of shelves were vacant in the Tisbury Stop & Shop Monday morning as the grocery chain continues to deal with a “cyber security” issue.
The produce and meat sections were seemingly hit the hardest on the Vineyard.
There have been reports of empty shelves around Massachusetts following the cyber issue — also meat and produce — according to reports from the Nantucket Current and WBUR.
Questions at the local location were deferred to the corporate headquarters.
Stop & Shop spokesperson Stephanie Cunha did not offer a timeframe for when stocks may return to normal, but she said that the stores should be good to go for the holiday next week.
“Stop & Shop understands the important role we play in ensuring that Island residents are able to access the food and supplies they need,” Cunha said. “We are well-positioned in terms of turkeys and hams for Thanksgiving, and we are working hard to re-stock our shelves to ensure our customers are able to get what they need for their holiday celebrations.”
A press release from the parent company — Ahold Delhaize USA — issued on Nov. 8 offered some insight into why some shelves are empty. The Dutch company said that it recently detected a “cybersecurity issue” within its U.S. network.
“Our teams are taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue,” the statement said. “This includes taking some systems offline to help 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.”
Hopefully everyone has a few cans of food in the pantry. And a garden to sustain ourselves.
This cybersecurity issue shows us just how fragile our food system can be.
Especially when all the immigrants working the farms and the meat-packing plants have all been rounded up. Trump constantly promoted the notion that the Democrats would be getting rid of “the cows”. I think the leather shoes are on Republican feet now . . .
Juleann, just for the record, milk at the Stop and Shop is $4.59 per whole milk gallon today.
Walmart nationwide is $3.66.
Let’s see how Trump does at lowering that price. Put it on your calendar for review one, two, three, and four years from now. With all the new tariffs Trump promised us, we can be very sure that the price will escalate.