It was a lazy late spring Saturday, except at the nation’s Targets. During the afternoon, the retail giant was plagued by a cash register outage that extended from sea to shining sea, with an apocalyptic software crash that made it impossible to scan credit cards, among other things. As per tweets (and CNN) lines were long, and the tweets were plentiful.
The true urban crisis. All the Target checkouts are down nationwide and we might die here pic.twitter.com/HUMpdYYKYm
— Faith Heaton Jolley (@FaithHJolley) June 15, 2019
BREAKING. Targetgeddon? Customers line up at Target stores across U.S. amid systemwide payment glitch https://t.co/uIJi4eI6OR #targetgeddon #targetoutage
— Josh Benson (@WFLAJosh) June 15, 2019
Woman who works here said all their inventory devices are going offline too. This sounds like a massive IT breakdown. @Target
— katie rosman (@katierosman) June 15, 2019
This is how you bring America to a standstill. Every single register at the Richfield @target is down 😱 pic.twitter.com/DsT5fv5QNS
— Nancy Yang (@n_yang) June 15, 2019
All the registers at target stores across the WORLD are down right now.. #targetdown pic.twitter.com/tvm0tzLefL
— alex (@kingkvstro) June 15, 2019
We’re aware that guests are currently unable to make purchases at Target stores. Our teams are troubleshooting now and we apologize for the inconvenience. We will provide an update as soon as possible.
— Target (@Target) June 15, 2019
“Our teams are troubleshooting now and we apologize for the inconvenience. We will provide an update as soon as possible,” Target’s social media account announced in a separate tweet.
And yet customers didn’t give up, nor did Target employees. People stayed to purchase their items as employees rang them up manually. Everyone rallied together so the wheels of capitalism could continue spinning.
Bless these Target workers. Handing out waters like we are stranded in the desert 😂 #targetdown
— Faith Heaton Jolley (@FaithHJolley) June 15, 2019
I am at @Target and spent an hour finding stuff for my kids’ camp list. AND ALL THE REGISTRS ARE BROKEN. Seems from Twitter, this is a chain-wife malfunction. @sapna pic.twitter.com/inlzY4vtuP
— katie rosman (@katierosman) June 15, 2019
Long lines and confusion at North Miami Target. Some people have been waiting 2 hours in line according to security. Systems down nationwide. pic.twitter.com/XWEn9tMLPc
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) June 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/FrossBrandon/status/1139971216616448000
Terrible video but had to share. Employees handing out chips. Starbucks handing out drinks. Customers offering their baskets to strangers trying to hold all of their items. Sometimes the most uncomfortable situations can actually bring out the best of human nature. #targetdown pic.twitter.com/iI3owraDoX
— Hunter Sowards (@huntersowards3) June 15, 2019
The Target meltdown lasted into the afternoon, and some reported that it was like society crumbling around them, turning consumer’s days into an epic Lord of the Flies. One even compared it to the dreaded Fyre Festival.
Registers are still down. I think we’re 30 minutes away from this Target becoming the next Fyre Fest. I’m fascinated by the woman waiting in line ahead of me, with a single water bottle in her basket 🤯
— Ashley Mayer (@ashleymayer) June 15, 2019
Some tried to power through the ordeal, for the hopes of buying some cheap bulk paper towels.
Everyone stuck in Target right now #targetdown pic.twitter.com/GQ4rj1Ucu5
— Faith Heaton Jolley (@FaithHJolley) June 15, 2019
Others did give up.
Narrator: and for the first time in her life, Erin walked out of @Target without spending $50. https://t.co/P3NI5NpUk5
— Erin Maye Quade (@ErinMayeQuade) June 15, 2019
It was not clear how many of Target’s 1,800 locations were affected by the outage, but it did occur in spots all over the country. By late afternoon it was reported that some locations had gotten back to normal, restoring peace to an otherwise uneventful weekend day.
(Via CNN)