Ahold Delhaize cyber incident takes Albert Heijn apps and deliveries offline

Ahold Delhaize said on the morning of 12 October that it had found a security issue within its network. The Dutch grocery group took some systems offline to protect them. Its stores stayed open. The company published the statement as inside information under EU market abuse rules, which means it could move the share price. This Ahold Delhaize cyber incident hit its best-known Dutch brand hardest.

Albert Heijn customers lose the app, deliveries and personal discounts

Albert Heijn, Etos and Gall & Gall have been affected since Sunday afternoon, Albert Heijn said in its own statement. Websites, apps and customer service are down. Logistics systems are switched off, so online grocery orders will not be delivered until further notice.

The loyalty programme is down too. Personal offers on the Bonus card, the Mijn Bonus Box and collecting Koopzegels stamps and Air Miles do not work. The national deals in this week’s leaflet still apply. Albert Heijn said shoppers who miss personal discounts will be compensated, and asked them to keep their receipts. It gave no date for a fix: “We cannot yet say when our services will be available again” (Dutch original).

Electronic shelf labels at Albert Heijn still show last week’s prices

Checkouts work, but electronic shelf labels may still show last week’s promotional prices. So the price on the shelf can be lower than the price at the till. Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that a store in Amsterdam put up notices warning shoppers about wrong prices.

Delhaize, Food Lion and Hannaford also report problems

Belgian broadcaster VRT reported that Delhaize customers cannot place new orders for this week, although its website and app still load. Trade site RetailTrends reported that the websites of US chains Food Lion and Hannaford were unreachable. Bol, the Dutch marketplace owned by the same group, stayed online.

Neither company has named the cause. Ahold Delhaize has been here before. In November 2024 a cyber incident stopped online ordering at Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Food Lion and Giant Food in the US. In April 2025 the company confirmed that files had been stolen from internal US business systems, The Record reported.

Grocers now run promotions through apps and loyalty data

Large grocers now sell much of their promotion through apps and member data. Tesco, for example, puts creator videos on store screens and in its app. When those systems stop, the weekly deals stop with them. Loyalty schemes that fail already cost retailers money: one study put the cost of broken schemes in the UK at £807m.

One thing to check this week in any retail plan: what happens to app-only coupons, personal offers and digital shelf prices if central systems go dark for two days, and who signs off on paying customers back.