Ahold Grocery Sites Stay Offline for Fifth Day After Cyber Incident

AMSTERDAM. Websites and apps at grocery chains owned by Ahold Delhaize stayed offline for a fifth day on Friday, October 16, after what the company calls a cybersecurity incident. Stores stayed open. Shelves in Europe were filling again. Online shopping was not back.

The shutdown began on October 11. Ahold Delhaize said on Monday, October 12 that a cybersecurity incident had led it to take some systems offline to protect them. In the United States the affected banners are Stop & Shop, Giant Food, Hannaford and Food Lion, together one of the largest food retailers in the country. In Europe the incident hit Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Etos, Gall & Gall and bol.com.

What shoppers found on Friday

In the United States, the Stop & Shop website carried a notice on Friday about the stoppage. It said the company was working to restore service as quickly as possible, and it pointed shoppers to DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats for online orders. Physical stores, pharmacies and gas stations stayed open, and the company said it will refund digital orders that were placed but not processed.

Giant Food moved to soften the hit. Shoppers at its 168 stores in Pennsylvania and nearby states got an email on Friday with a coupon for 10 percent off an in store grocery order through October 22. The discount is capped at $10 and limited to one per household. For online orders through delivery partners, Giant offered $15 off an order of $75 or more through October 19. A spokeswoman, Ashley Flower, said stores are still receiving deliveries of goods, every digital coupon in the new weekly circular was activated automatically, and Giant card holders can still earn and redeem points at checkout.

In Europe, the recovery was further along in stores than online. RetailDetail reported on Friday that Delhaize store owners can place orders again, through a workaround, after days in which stores were supplied from the retailer's own estimates. Albert Heijn stores are receiving normal deliveries again, and shelves are filling. Albert Heijn's online store will not resume before next week at the earliest, and orders already placed for delivery through Sunday, October 18 have been cancelled, with refunds promised once systems allow.

What the company says, and what it will not say

Ahold Delhaize said in its update on Tuesday, October 13 that there was no evidence that customer, employee or partner data had been taken. Its most recent full statement, on October 14, said it is working with internal teams and outside cybersecurity experts, and is engaging with authorities. It said it could not share details while the investigation runs, so as not to undermine its own security or its response.

That silence drew a public push on Friday. The Netherlands justice minister, David van Weel, called on the company to file a criminal complaint over the incident, Reuters reported. The minister spoke to the Dutch press agency ANP. An Ahold spokesperson said the company could not respond to the minister's remarks and pointed reporters back to the October 14 statement. Ahold has avoided describing the incident as a hack.

Supermarket News noted this is the second major cyberattack to hit Ahold Delhaize in the last two years.

Why it matters

Groceries run on thin margins and daily deliveries. When ordering systems go down, stores guess at stock, fresh shelves empty first, and online customers vanish for the week. Ahold's chains feed millions of households on two continents. Five days offline is long enough to move shoppers to rivals, and the discounts Giant offered on Friday show the company knows it.

What happens next

The tests now are simple. Albert Heijn says online delivery will not resume before Sunday, and its own update points to next week. Delhaize expects e-commerce capacity back to normal levels from this weekend. In the United States, the banners have given no date for their sites and apps to return. Until they do, every day adds refunds, discounts and lost online orders to the bill for an incident the company still will not describe in detail.