Albert Heijn is delaying the restart of deliveries again. The website and the Mijn AH app are live once more, but online grocery orders still do not go through. The chain now says drivers will go out gradually from Friday 23 October. All orders through Thursday 22 October are cancelled. New orders cannot be placed until then. Customer service remains closed.

This is the second reset in three days. On Thursday the firm said it would not deliver at least until Sunday. On Friday it spoke of “the second half of the week”. On Sunday 18 October the rest moved to Friday. NOS timestamps 14:38; AH’s own note, 13:20. This is not a healthy system: it is a system coming back in pieces.

Last Sunday Albert Heijn took its systems offline over a “cybersecurity incident”. NOS sources speak of a hack. The company gives no detail on nature or author. It says, for now, there is no indication that personal data were involved. We do not treat that as proof they were not, nor as proof they were: it is the firm’s position, mid-inquiry.

Distribution was hit; shelves emptied. From Wednesday, shop restocking resumed. Sunday’s update: shelves filled several times a day, Bonus prices back on digital tags, bread, dairy, meat. Anyone who paid for a cancelled order is refunded in a few days, without asking. Points, Air Miles, stamp credits: kept. Missed stamps can still be bought against a till receipt.

In Mijn AH, Bonus is back, the 10 per cent Premium on Bio and AH Terra, gift cards and Allerhande recipes. Other saving schemes, in steps. The Postcode Lottery campaign is extended to 25 October. At peak traffic the site may drop again; the firm asks for patience. In Belgium, Delhaize — same Ahold Delhaize group — restarted orders sooner, on an old system, the Telegraaf reports; the Netherlands runs a different stack.

Who sits behind the incident remains unsaid. We are not putting a group name on it. Friday’s delivery is an intention, not a van in the street.

Image: Michielverbeek, Albert Heijn, Zeestraat, Volendam, 25 June 2023, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not the warehouse hit by the incident.

Sources consulted: Opstart bezorging door Albert Heijn opnieuw uitgesteld, app en site werken weer — NOS; Mediastatement inzake cybersecurity incident — Albert Heijn.