Coles offers freebies to customers after IT glitch shuts stores across nation

Coles has offered its customers some freebies after an IT glitch caused supermarkets across the country to be shut down on Friday afternoon.

Coles has offered its customers two freebies after an IT glitch caused supermarkets across the nation to be shut down temporarily on Friday afternoon.

The mass closure was caused by a technical issue with processing payments.

To make good, the supermarket giant will give triple Flybuys points for purchases made this weekend and free home delivery for orders over $50 until October 18.

Trolleys bar the way at Coles in Sydney’s Edgecliff, which was closed Friday afternoon along with stores nationally due to an IT issue. Picture: Damian Shaw

“Coles supermarkets nationally have reopened for trade after a technical issue with our point-of-sale system meant we were briefly unable to process transactions on Friday afternoon,” a Coles spokesperson said.

“Our supermarkets reopened on Friday evening, and the outage did not affect Coles Online, Coles Express or Coles Liquor.

“To thank customers for their patience while our team worked hard to get us back up and running, we’re offering triple Flybuys points on food and groceries and at Liquorland this weekend.

Coles apologies to customers on a sign at Edgecliff Coles in Sydney’s east. Picture: Damian Shaw

“Coles Online is also offering free home delivery on orders of $50 and above until Sunday 18 October.”

Coles chief operating officer Matt Swindells on Saturday morning said their systems would be back up in about three hours.

“It was a relatively minor mistake that we make all the time with our checkout processes but this one just went wrong and the IT team were onto it quickly and we will be back up in just over three hours,” he told Sunrise.

“Our customers were amazing as always and it was a lot of disruption and our team members in some difficult circumstances looked after our customers.”