Ahold Delhaize has restored online grocery ordering across its five U.S. supermarket banners following a cyberattack that disrupted digital operations for more than a week, while the company continues investigating the incident and restoring services across its European businesses.
Websites and mobile applications for Food Lion, The GIANT Company, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop were restored October 20, allowing customers to resume online grocery purchases, pickup and delivery orders.
The restoration follows an October 12 announcement that Ahold Delhaize had detected suspicious activity in its information technology infrastructure and taken certain systems offline as a precaution. The company subsequently confirmed that the incident resulted from malicious activity.
To compensate shoppers for the interruption, its U.S. banners are offering limited-time discounts and other incentives through late October and early November. Depending on the banner, the promotions include discounts on pickup orders, delivery offers through Instacart and DoorDash, and additional or extended loyalty rewards.
Ahold Delhaize USA CEO Claire Peters apologized for the disruption, acknowledging that the company had been unable to serve customers through their preferred shopping channels.
Physical supermarkets remained open throughout the incident, although the shutdown interrupted online ordering and other digital services. The company also worked with third-party delivery providers, including Instacart, DoorDash and Uber Eats, to accommodate customers during the outage.
In Europe, recovery has proceeded in stages. Dutch supermarket operator Albert Heijn has restored its website and mobile application, with home deliveries expected to resume October 23. Websites for the Etos and Gall & Gall banners are also operating.
E-commerce services in Belgium have been fully restored, while websites and applications across the company’s Central and Southeastern European businesses are available.
Ahold Delhaize filed a formal report with Dutch police October 19 and said it had notified the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours of discovering the suspicious activity.
The company said its investigation has found no evidence that sensitive customer, employee or business partner information was stolen. It has not disclosed the method of attack or identified those responsible.
The recovery comes amid a separate international cybersecurity emergency involving two newly disclosed vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by approximately 70% of websites worldwide.
The vulnerabilities have prompted government agencies and businesses to take websites offline while installing security updates. Cloudflare and other cybersecurity providers have reported widespread attempts to exploit the flaws.
No connection has been established between the PHP vulnerabilities and the Ahold Delhaize attack.
The developments nevertheless illustrate the growing operational exposure of grocery retailers as online ordering, digital loyalty programs, distribution systems and third-party technology become increasingly central to their businesses.