Shoppers across the UK hit out at the Co-op chain after a succession of stores found themselves lacking in produce after morning deliveries failed to arrive.
In Dalston, two stores saw shelves go bare despite a large delivery arriving on Thursday morning.
Fresh produce was the worst affected, one store in Hackney almost ran out of fruits and vegetables at 11am.
Shoppers took to social media to express their frustration with the lack of product on offer. One Twitter user, Jack R, tweeted the chain saying “do you actually want to sell any food!? Pathetic.”
@coopukfood do you actually want to sell any food?! Pathetic. #croftonpark pic.twitter.com/DzOYuqN7GV
— Jack R (@86JAR) March 13, 2018
Another user, Emma, tweeted “Can someone tell me what’s happening? Two weeks my local co-op has been like this!! Even worse now!”, followed by an ominous photo of empty shelves at a store in Islington.
@coopukfood Can someone tell us what's happening!! 2 weeks my local coop has been like this!! Even worse now!! pic.twitter.com/fZTFzRH30H
— Emma ?? (@SmileSweetly78) March 15, 2018
The problems were due to adverse weather, the Co-op tweeted. “A number of our depots have had problems receiving, picking and delivering orders to our stores due to the bad weather,” it said. But in a reply to another user, the problem was blamed on an IT issue that “prevented some stores receiving deliveries as normal”.
Hi Joanna, i'm really sorry. One of our depots encountered an IT issue that prevented some stores receiving deliveries as normal. Be assure that the teams are doing everything they can to get it back to normal. We are very sorry. ^Iain
— Co-op Food (@coopukfood) March 15, 2018
One staff member in a store in Dalston claimed that the problem was due to a payment issue between the company and its supplier, saying that “The Co-op has launched an investigation, but hopefully things will be back to normal this afternoon.”
