CO OP Completely Empty

[Thegirlinthegreenscarf]

How's your local Co Op ? Ours is mostly empty apart from a few bits here and there on various shelves. Fridges are completely empty. I think Co Op have handled this situation shocking, in our area we didn't know anything was wrong as they said they had fridge issues and deliveries were late arriving. I popped in after work for gin thankfully they had that or I would have lost my shit at those cyber hackers 😅

M&S sent an email apologising and updates. Nothing like that from Co Op not even an apology email for our data being stolen 🙄

I started this thread out of curiosity to see how other stores are. Of course I feel for the staff in the stores. However what's become apparent is my store obviously isn't following guidelines from head office or haven't had guidelines?

There are actual notices in the stores and in the windows and on the doors. You can't miss them (except OP somehow did!)

And mine also had a recorded announcement playing as I walked round. And I had an e-mail. And I do read the news, so I was aware the Co-op was having problems.

My Co-op's refrigerated cabinets were looking very empty today, but they did have essentials like bread, and plenty of it. But hardly any crisps - just a few packets of cheese & onion!

Our Co-Op has signs up saying there’s an issue with the fridges which is a bit disingenuous. Co-Op haven’t emailed me either but I have seen their social media posts which basically says don’t worry only your name and contact details have been stolen 🙈.

There was nothing about hacking on fridge notices. Just they were having stock problems. They did have some nice Bomber County asparagus, better than I'd just bought in Waitrose.

Strange thing was, all the normal fridges were empty, but there were many new fridges where there hadn't been before full of random stuff. I mean no order to anything.

Hang on, the usual fridges in their permanent positions were turned off and empty with tape across them.
The temporary fridges contained stock from the permanent fridges.

Why would they do that?

They own the Pub as well, it was in darkness. I assumed because all were in the garden, but there were no customers at all when I passed by.

I feel for the Co-op they are an ethical organisation. I live in a city so plenty of other shops but I wonder how they are in the Isles of Scilly. The little Co-Op in St Mary's is the main food shop for all the islands, a life line and it doesn't hiked up prices because everything is brought in by boat. There has just been so many visitors for the World Gig Racing championships so I imagine shelves are bare.

I work for a food wholesaler and we were hacked a few years ago. Trust me it is not easy to recover.

The British Library is still rebuilding its systems after a cyber attack more than 18 months ago.

It has just been on the BBC news about them prioritising the remote areas and Scottish Isles and the shelves being empty.

We’ve just been in our co-op and totally believed the signs saying there was a problem with the fridges, I hadn’t even realised there had been a problem. I’ve read about the M&S one, but didn’t know this wasn’t a local thing until seeing this thread.

I'm more ethical than they are, the hypocrites. Company, not the staff.

On their web page: "Read here how the cyber attack affects you." Can't sign in to read it.

Well it's not like they are sitting back and relaxing.
The are the victims of criminals. The cost in lost business, ruined stock and getting their systems back will likely be tens of millions. Meanwhile there are other places to get food for most ( appreciate it hits harder in rural areas)

Went into our village one this morning and couldn't believe how bare it was. Literally no fruit and veg, fridges and freezers virtually empty, barely any soft drinks. No signage to explain the problem and despite being a Co Op card holder, I've had no texts nor emails.

As for being ethical, they're really not. We had a brilliant convenience store in our village until the Co Op came along, bought a plot of land and built a new store on it. The village shop didn't stand a chance and they had to close down within a couple of months. Nothing ethical forcing a genuine local family business to close down.

I'm just back from a trip to Arran where the Co-op operates the only supermarket and a couple of convenience stores. There are two or three very small local food shops in some of the villages, a butcher, one or two bakers and a market garden that may sell direct to the public (not sure), and that's it on the island. I am a Co-op member and have had no email from them. I order a delivery from the main Co-op on Arran for my Mum every week so they definitely have my email address. Not a dicky bird. Last weekend they had no milk at all. Fortunately the butcher gets milk from a local farm, so we were OK there. On Wednesday I went in to do my Mum's weekly shop in person as I was there. Next to nothing in the way of veg, not much fruit, various other things missing, but nothing like as bad as Portree or Islay, fortunately. They had more fruit yesterday. There were printed signs all over the shop saying they were having an issue with deliveries but it would be sorted very soon. Everybody there knew it was the cyber attack. I couldn't buy a gift card that my Mum wanted to send someone either.

These hackers are scum. Utterly lacking in the imagination and common decency to know how their pathetic attack is going to affect ordinary people. Having said that, I'm not surprised in the slightest that the Co-op has turned out to be vulnerable. Their online delivery website is like something from the early days of the worldwide web. I was gobsmacked by how clunky it is. That doesn't necessarily mean they haven't got to grips with cybersecurity, but they clearly don't have the money to put into developing their online service. I use Ocado for our own deliveries and comparing the two it's like the Premier League and a local 5 a side league.

There are bits of our system that will never recover. Payroll system gone no historical data. And the cost is massive new tech,new equipment and that’s before the loss of business. My company survived but it was hard for all staff involved.

We live rurally, I’ve stopped off on my way home from work to pick up stuff for people that live nearby. I work 13 miles away.

I really feel for the staff!

Yes its like in lockdown again here when dinner is supermarket surprise. Though I remembered we have a cauliflower as well.

I have a coop loyalty card and haven’t received any emails about stolen details

Not on the islands, but one of the things you have to accept if you make the choice to live there is that you have to have a prepper mindset and keep lots of stuff in the cupboards and freezer. For those who don't have the money to do that, it must be very tough at the moment.

M&S near me had no Percy Pigs the other day…had to get fizzy tail ones!

no idea about the village co-op but I’m on the same road and just realised I haven’t seen or heard any coop Lorries for days and they’re normally in and out the village quite a bit.

I went in earlier and didn't notice anything at all 😳

No email though.

We are semi rural and the smallish coop is the only supermarket in the village. Instead of a lovely walk it's a car ride to a tesco metro, not a major problem for us, but we did come back from Australia on Tuesday night to an empty fridge, so it was a little frustrating when DH came back empty handed bar bread and a couple of veggies from his coop trip on Wednesday morning.

There's always so.ethi g going wrong there though, usually it's the card machines not working, or it's closed because of a leak or the door doesn't work so we just shrugged it off.

Today I asked and the lady told me it was because of the cyber attack so this time it's a more 'legit' reason at least

There are bits of our system that will never recover. Payroll system gone no historical data. And the cost is massive new tech,new equipment and that’s before the loss of business.

A friend who used to work in IT in the banking industry said last week that she is glad she is retired and doesn't have to deal with this. Part of her job used to involve disaster recovery planning. Once a year they used to spend a weekend at their backup site, rehearsing the disaster plan.

Our local Coops (3 within a 10 mile radius - fairly rural) are bare of anything apart from cake pops, alcohol, crisps and cleaning products.

I'm a card holder, but had no email.

Signs are on doors apologising for the empty shelves , due to IT issues which is putting it mildly I think.

Presume all the perishable food is sat there in the warehouses, just rotting, which seems such a waste and sort of makes the situation worse I feel. Who is paying the suppliers with stock sat waiting to go into the Coop warehouses as well.

2 near me
both empty

I feel sorry for them but they should have planned for stuff like this and been more proactive about cyber security