LC- The Oregonian
The grocery chain Fred Meyer has started charging customers a service fee when they request cash back at the checkout line.
Shoppers at Fred Meyer stores around the Pacific Northwest had a brief moment of panic on an already-hectic day of Christmas Eve shopping.
Several stores around the area experienced a technical issue that prevented all credit and debit card transactions Tuesday morning, leading to long lines and sudden runs on in-store ATMs, according to accounts on Twitter.
The Pacific Northwest wasn’t alone. The glitch was part of a nationwide issue at stores owned by Kroger, the company that owns Fred Meyer and several other regional grocery chains.
According to media reports from around the country, Kroger stores experienced the outage for an unspecified period of time Tuesday morning. The company confirmed the situation in a statement released at about 11 a.m.
“Our EBT system was down for a short period of time. It is now fixed and working properly,” the company said, according to several news outlets.
In the meantime, there was a bit of chaos for those trying to do some last-minute shopping. The moment was captured by local shoppers on Twitter:
--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB