Food shortages plague Stop & Shop locations in CT following data breach of parent company

Customers of Stop & Shop supermarkets across Connecticut are reporting food and merchandise shortages across the state as officials with the Massachusetts-based grocery chain struggle to fix the hack that hit its parent company's computer systems last week.

Stop & Shop officials say work continues on fixing the computer systems, although they aren't saying how long the problem will take to resolve. The computer problems extended to pharmacy locations in Stop & Shop locations across the chain, according to Jen Brogan, a company spokeswoman.

"Stop & Shop pharmacies are still experiencing intermittent issues with processing prescriptions and refills via phone," Brogan said. "In addition, we are unable to fulfill prescriptions through the Stop & Shop website and app at this time. We are recommending that customers visit their local store, and our pharmacy associates would be glad to assist them."

There are currently no issues with Stop & Shop's online grocery orders, only online prescriptions, she said.

Valerie Nolan Ford said that last Thursday she was unable to get prescriptions needed for cataract surgery due to the computer system being down at the Wallingford store on Route 5.

"I did not know they had been hacked at the time," she said.

Stop & Shop's parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, issued a statement about a "cybersecurity issue" that hit the company on Friday. 

Kaitlyn Krasselt, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection which regulates pharmacies in the state said agency officials had not received any complaints related to Stop & Shop's computer problems. She said consumer protection officials were aware of delays that Stop & Shop pharmacists had in processing prescriptions last Friday, a backlog that has since been resolved.

Stop & Shop is not among the 10 largest pharmacies in the United States, both in terms of the number of pharmacists employed or the number of locations, according to the trade publication, Becker's Hospital Review.

Some Connecticut consumers who responded to Hearst Connecticut Media inquiries about the computer system problem said they'd resume shopping at Stop & Shop grocery stores after the computer problems are resolved.

Guy Tarantello, a Cheshire resident, said while Stop & Shop is still resolving the problems associated with the computer system hack, "it doesn't seem worth it to spend the time going there if you will need to go elsewhere for your desired products."

"I will probably return once I know that products are back on the shelves as long as they don't raise prices more to regain the profit that they are going to lose," Trantello said. "Just wondering how long it will take them to resupply all the departments in the entire store. Hopefully they will run some good incentives to get people back."

Matthew McDonald lives near a Stop & Shop store in Maplecroft Plaza in Cheshire. He said he has started shopping at the Cheshire Big Y location located a few miles south on Route 10 since the computer problems cropped up last week at Stop & Shop. He will return to Stop & Shop when the issue has been resolved, he said.

"It’s my go to," McDonald said. "They usually have better prices for the stores we have offered in our town. Unfortunately we don’t have an Aldi or ShopRite in Cheshire."

Lin Napolitano of Cheshire said she went to the Maplecroft Plaza Stop & Shop to purchase peppers, but didn't find any.

"The entire back wall was empty," Napolitano said of the Cheshire store produce section. "This was my go to store until COVID. Now I go to Big Y."

The Stop & Shop location on Queen Street in Southington also had produce shortages before noon on Tuesday, with no lemons and prepared salad mix. The shortages also extended to the meat counter, which was out of organic beef and chicken as was the dairy counter, where certain items were unavailable.

A sign on several of the refrigeration units had signs that said: "Due to IT systems outages that are affecting some of our behind-the-scenes applications, product deliveries may be slightly delayed. We are working to restock our shelves as quickly as possible.