Why this popular Dutch supermarket’s shelves were suddenly left empty

Dutch shoppers have been quite surprised this week as they walked into locations of the country’s most popular and largest supermarket chain, only to find shelves completely empty. Albert Heijn, a popular grocery store in the Netherlands, has only just begun restocking its shelves after a devastating cyberattack completely halted operations since Sunday, October 11, though according to representatives, some of its shelves may stay empty for some time yet.

‘Cyber incident’ forces Albert Heijn to halt operations immediately, leaving shelves barren

According to a representative of Albert Heijn’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, in a statement made on Tuesday, October 13, the supermarket chain was forced to carry out a “controlled restart of certain systems” following a “cyber incident” that took down many of its supply chains.

Sources from the cyber security sector told local Dutch outlet NOS that Albert Heijn identified suspicious traffic on its systems. The chain reportedly immediately switched systems off, which prevented further damage by hackers. Several servers were used in the attack, including from the US, Poland, Moldova, and Turkey, though the information does not mean that the attacks are coming from those locations, as the traffic can be routed through other countries.

Dutch shoppers weigh in: ‘I’ll just go to Lidl’

Some loyal Albert Heijn patrons have been more impacted than others. “I went today, and there weren’t a lot of veggies and stuff, but I didn’t really care because I just needed bread,” stated one Dutch shopper. “I’ll just go to Lidl later,” she joked.

“I’d say that a lot of supermarket brand products are barely there, especially the fresh ones like fruits and vegetables. I still went to buy some yoghurt and paid by card, which wasn’t the best idea,” stated Lily, another Albert Heijn patron. “I think, because recently Odido was hacked, the people don’t care that much anymore. At least, I don’t. Just going to another supermarket fixes it.”

Another Dutch shopper, Liv, has been more apprehensive about Albert Heijn this week, sharing that a person who works in cyber security told her not to shop there. “I was told not to go to Albert Heijn at all. It wasn’t worth the security risk,” she explained. “Someone also said their loyalty system, ‘bonus cards’, was down, which affects coupons. One of the only reasons I go to Albert Heijn is that they have deals. I’ve also seen people that say the prices aren’t displaying, and that they don’t have a lot of the products, so I’ve avoided the Albert Heijn and just gone to Lidl.”

No indication that consumer data has been stolen

So far, the company has not found any indication of stolen consumer data. It has not specified which of its systems are back up and running yet. Albert Heijn said in a written statement that it was taking the incident “very seriously”, but could not go into detail at this time.

Distribution centres forced to halt operations completely on Monday

Some of Albert Heijn’s six distribution centres in the Netherlands were forced to stop completely on Monday, October 12, leaving some shelves at popular grocery store locations completely empty. According to the company, several centres have resumed operations, and are now relying on extra deliveries to return products to the stores.

Some shelves, as the chain stated, may stay empty, including fruit, vegetables and other fresh produce. Online ordering and deliveries are still not possible, and customer service is still unreachable. 

Other chains affected by malicious cyberattack

However, Albert Heijn has not been the only chain affected by the attack. Etos, a pharmacy, and off-licence chain Gall & Gall have also felt the effects of this breach of cyber security. Additionally, Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize, which is also owned by Albert Heijn’s parent company, reported having IT problems on Monday, October 12.

Though the incident happened on the same weekend as another major cyberattack on hundreds of French supermarkets that remotely affected refrigeration systems and forced the chain to throw away its fresh and frozen food, a spokesperson from Ahold Delhaize stated to Reuters that there was no evidence of a link between these two attacks.