Whole Foods says Some Customer Payment Info Compromised
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Sep 30, 2017
Reports say hackers gained access to customers' credit card information at some of its in-store tap rooms and restaurants. Others are in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston Salem, Burlington and Asheville.
But Amazon gives Whole Foods' products the potential for a new mass-market platform, providing new revenue to the struggling grocer, grocery analysts said.
Whole Foods did not say which of its 470 stores were affected, and a spokeswoman declined to answer any questions.
Whole Foods has said that upon learning of the breach it obtained the help of a leading cybersecurity forensics firm and further notified law enforcement; but whether that happened days, weeks, or months ago, the company did not specify.
He added that customers of both Whole Foods and Amazon should also be wary of the phishing emails that scammers will inevitably be pushing out.
Whole Foods could not be immediately reached for comment about how many of its supermarkets have restaurants, but it reportedly has more than 40 taprooms, or bar areas.
"The company's investigation is ongoing and it will provide additional updates as it learns more", the statement continued. For example, Chipotle and Wendy's were hit with cyber attacks, with hackers stealing customer credit card information.
Whole Foods Market store in Sacramento, California. (NASDAQ:AMZN), has announced a data breach.
The taproom stores use a different point of sales service than the traditional Whole Foods stores.
Wendy's said in July that point of sale systems at more than 1,000 of its USA restaurants were targeted by hackers, compromising an unknown number of credit and debit cards.
