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 🙄

Our co-op is empty too. I’m a member but didn’t have an email. M&S is also very empty.

Your card details are in the hands or hard drives of the hackers. that maybe why no Comms. The pr on this is poor but I presume trying not to give it publicity. Co op paid £100 million to have their brand on the arena in Manchester. That's just their name, they don't own the place. Perhaps IT security was a better way to spend the money.

Tbf to OP, I’m a co-op and co-op central member and I haven’t had an email from either of them, my details are definitely up to date. Plenty from M&S though. I’m obviously aware of the coop problems because of the news but nothing from the stores unless I go to the website.

What’s the deal with these hackers though? What are they doing it for? Just money or a ‘purpose’?

Do you mean debit card details? How? Sorry I knew there was an issue, but didn't realise this was an aspect. Bloody hell.

How would it be cheaper? They would still have to pay all of their daily costs but with a guaranteed income of £0.

Stay open and sell what you have, and maybe make 10% of your usual profits is what I’d do.

Co op is the only supermarket on lots of Scottish islands probably more worrying for islanders than people on mainland who can access other supermarkets even if its a bit inconvenient and not as local

I didn't think I knew this and commented that it explains why the fridges were empty yesterday.

dH assures me I told him last week.

One of us is losing the plot...

I had an email from them.

I work for central coop and although our systems are fine we actually receive all our stock from group (blue) depots.

We are getting bits of stock trickle through, anything we do get had to be counted and scanned in individually which can take time. Like a pp has said they are prioritising certain items and areas.

We do have notices up around stores and radio announcements. I also received an email as a member.

Staff are encouraged not to talk about it as a cyber attack, more delivery issues and apologise for the inconvenience.

Hopefully we'll be up and running properly soon but I don't hold my breath.

I'm lucky I work in an area with mostly lovely and understanding customers.

In my opinion stock levels are worse than COVID times.

Scattered Spider is believed to be behind the attack. It’s purely for money and kicks. No ethical reasons. They’ve been paid off by various parts of NHS -remember when ops had to be cancelled because the blood matching and supply part of the NHS was hacked ?
https://news.sky.com/story/who-are-scattered-spider-the-infamous-young-hacking-group-linked-to-mands-cyber-attack-13358559

Sorry . Your membership card. I don't know what that links into but anything Co op related may be compromised. Need to see what they say which they will have to. The company had 72 hours to report the data breach and what they believe has been exfiltrated. That's a legal requirement which if ignored can result in huge fines (millions)

I am in the Channel Islands. When I popped into my local Coop yesterday, an assistant told me that it had been a week since they had received anything from the UK.

@Marypoppinsisnosaint thanks for your imput. But there is absolutely nothing in my store. We don't have any screens at all or announcements and never had. We have no signs and why are the staff being told not to mention that a cyber attack has happened? Why burry the truth ?

@RobinStrike I remember the NHS attack that was quite scary. People unwell and having to get treatment postponed 😪

I do get the issues with one chain having a monopoly in an area, but what do you want them to do?

@Thegirlinthegreenscarf I completely agree with you with regards to keeping it hidden. To be honest I think customers would be more understanding given the true facts. I think because it's not our company that's officially been hacked it's not our place to say anything? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I can only speak for my store and what we've been doing/asked to do. The radio announcements must have come from head office as it's "coop radio"

I think the smaller convenience stores have been hit the hardest and fastest. I'm in a larger store so hold more stock on shelves and in the warehouse.

I work for coop. They’ve sent out email, it’s been all over the news and social media. Not sure what else they’re suppose to do! We’re doing what we can. The last few days we’ve been filling the shelves with ex promotion stock (that we’re not usually/currently ranged for). The hackers got into everything from clocking in/out, stock counts, ordering, even the refrigeration. We have to manually take temperature checks of all the fridges and freezers. It’s been an absolute nightmare. Most customers have been so understanding but we’re already seeing people who seem to think we’re hiding stock out the back. If there is an ‘out of stock’ label…..don’t ask if we have any out the back….we really don’t!

FB isn’t the right way to inform people.
It might be ONE of the ways but you can’t expect people to see a post as
1- they might not follow the Co Op. who follows a shop like that in SM??
2- they migut not see the post even if they follow them (see algorithm)
3- tgey might not be on FB. Not everyone is

So yes they might have announced it in FB. It’s likely it hasn’t helped a lot if people to know what’s going on.

Ok then

Perhaps direct that at them rather than me though

I was in my local Co Op last night and yes the fridges for fresh food were empty, luckily i only needed bread.

i was in M&S this evening 5pm-ish and there were plenty of stocked fridges.

Those that haven't had emails - have you registered your Co Op loyalty card or whatever it is called ?

A quick google shows it’s been on the bbc and telegraph websites. As well as other papers. Short of hand delivering letters to everyone in a 50 mile radius of each shop I’m not sure what people expect them to do!

I think for me it's been the way they have handled things. More transparency was needed. Like I've said I live rural on mainland Scotland. I can't just pop to another shop a few miles away because there is none. If the staff were honest then we could have worked things out instead they have not told the truth or put notices out which now leaves a lot of people in a situation especially older people. Going by this thread there email system is obviously hit and miss also. People would be more understanding if they communicated with people.

Surely if they have stock in where houses they can manually process and deliver to stores.

What I’m finding interesting is how people working in that shop seem to think everyone should be aware because email, news etc…
Which seems to be at odd with customers experience. They haven’t seen the email, weren’t aware etc….

dh just came back from our local small co op.
Surprised there was so little. Then remembered about the hacking. Which I didn’t know was nation wide (I only knew about the dire situation in some Scottish islands).
Neither of us thought it might be hard to get bread there.

Inform people locally when you are the only shop in the area?

You might find it frustrating working in a shop.
Imagine how it would feel if the only shop around has very little left AND no one is telling you what’s going on?

@BlueTitShark think you have hit the nail on the head it's all just been poorly executed and disjointed.

Nothing is done manually these days. Our warehouse is in avonmouth which is a good 2+ hours away. Stores are different sizes and stock different stuff depending on where they are. In our area we have city centre stores, beach stores, student stores. All need different stock the warehouse wouldn’t necessarily have a clue what we each need unless they check the system. Which has been hacked and nobody can get into.

At the moment the warehouse are just guessing. They’re sending out whatever they have just to move along the short dated stock (fresh/milk etc) so we’re getting stuff we’re not ranged for. We only have limited space for what they do send!