Checkout lines at Market Basket stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were disrupted on Wednesday afternoon after a register glitch temporarily left some shoppers unable to complete purchases. The issue was eventually resolved.
According to NBC Boston, the glitch left some shoppers temporarily unable to complete purchases, and numerous customers took to social media to vent about registers going down. Market Basket responded to the outage reports on its own social media accounts and said the issue was eventually resolved, though the outlet noted the exact number of affected stores remained unclear. Separately, WCVB reported that registers were briefly down at several Market Basket locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Accounts of just how widespread the failure was varied. One Facebook poster reported that stores were accepting cash payments only during the outage, while, per a report attributed to Richard Roberg, Market Basket experienced a system breach preventing payment processing specifically at the Milton Road store. Another account, attributed to Renee LaChance, described the chain going fully offline, with every store reportedly unable to process either cash or card transactions at some point during the disruption.
Shoppers Describe Half-Hour Waits as Registers Stayed Dark
LaChance said she waited roughly half an hour for Market Basket stores to come back online, and reported that the company told her all of its locations were affected. Other social media users posting Wednesday described registers or payment systems being down. The conflicting accounts underscore how confusing the outage was for customers trying to check out in real time, even as the company worked to restore service.
Under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 255D, Section 10A, retail establishments in the state are legally required to accept cash as legal tender, a statute cited by a Reddit discussion on cash-acceptance rules.
No Self-Checkout Cushion for the Chain
Market Basket has no self-checkout or loyalty cards, and its stores have staffed checkout lanes, according to a discussion on r/massachusetts. Self-checkout is not an alternative for shoppers at the chain.
Founded in Lowell in 1917 and now headquartered in Tewksbury, Market Basket operates across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island and generates an estimated $7.3 billion to $8 billion in annual revenue, according to Wikipedia. The 90-store regional footprint means a chainwide technical hiccup can ripple across a large swath of New England shoppers almost instantly.
The register failure is also a reminder that even well-regarded grocers aren't immune to the point-of-sale glitches that have plagued retailers nationwide.
