A million-dollar IT glitch was to blame for the outage which saw Woolworths’ shoppers standing in line with full trolleys for up to an hour on Monday afternoon.
Frustrated customers were unable to pay for their shopping, with some even turned away from the supermarket when registers shut down shortly after 4pm on Monday.
The glitch reportedly cost the supermarket giant $1 million.
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci released a statement on Tuesday announcing the monumental shut down was due to a ‘system fault’.
A nationwide technical outage has shut down Woolworths’ registers, forcing stores to close their doors (pictured are customers after the outage)
‘Our systems ultimately self-corrected themselves and we were back and open for trade across most stores by 4.30pm, with all stores now operational,’ Mr Banducci said.
‘This type of incidents should not occur and we apologise unreservedly to our customers and store teams for the inconvenience caused.’
Pictures taken from stores in Sydney and Melbourne show customers waiting at registers with trolleys full of food and groups of abandoned carts.
The outage occurred about 4pm on Monday – the chains busiest time of day.
The IT hiccup hit about half of Woolworths’ 995 Australian stores, the supermarket giant said it a statement.
Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci (pictured) released a statement on Tuesday announcing the monumental shut down was due to a ‘system fault’
The outage occurred around 4pm on Monday – the chains busiest time of day
Radio station 3AW was inundated with calls reporting outages from Drouin, Endeavour Hills, Swan Hill and Essendon.
Sky News has reported that customers were told to leave and come back in an hour.
A woman named Rose, from Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne, told 3AW customers were offered lollies as they were asked to leave.
‘Everyone was walking out of the store empty handed. Staff were very apologetic. Staff said every register in every store nation wide has shut down. We were all offered a box of chocolates.’
Woolworths told Daily Mail Australia registers were back online just before 5pm.
‘We can confirm that an IT issue impacted registers in our supermarkets for a short period of time this afternoon. The registers are now back online in all our stores. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Thanks!’
Pictures taken from stores in Sydney and Melbourne show customers waiting at registers with trolley’s full of food and groups of abandoned carts
A large crowd can be seen gathering at the register of a Woolworths on Monday afternoon