Target employees share their wildest stories from the retailer’s weekend register crash (TGT)

Michael Liedtke / AP Images

Target underwent a widespread global outage at its registers on Saturday.
For about two hours, "The Great Target Outage of ’19" caused lines to swell and tempers to flare at the retailer.
Target employees described witnessing technological glitches, abandoned carts, and frustrated shoppers.
For the most part, though, four employees who spoke to Business Insider said they saw nothing akin to the "Lord of the Flies"-esque situation that you might expect from angry customers.
Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

Target stores across the country were the site of a fiasco on Saturday when the retailer’s cash registers collectively went on the fritz.

And alongside the frustrated shoppers who voiced their complaints and observations about the "Great Target Outage of ’19" on social media were the Target employees struggling to explain what was happening and contend with the frustrated crowds.

Business Insider spoke to four Target employees about their experiences this weekend, along with Jacquelyn Smith, Business Insider’s deputy editor of distributed content, who was shopping at Target at the time.

"This past weekend, our team members were empowered to make the shopping experience as seamless as they could when guest transactions were not being processed," a Target spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "Stores showed up to make it right for our guests by keying items manually, asking to hold guest orders, and handing out snacks and beverages. We have received numerous positive messages from our guests who felt our teams delivered at an exceptional level during a difficult time."

Here’s what employees had to say about the retailer’s register malfunction:

Employees and customers alike were confused at first …

Michael Liedtke / AP Images

Sources on the ground agreed that the situation at their respective Targets was initially confusing without being out-of-control when the glitch first began on Saturday.

Smith said that she and her family didn’t even realize that something was amiss when they first entered their local Target in Levittown, New York.

One employee who spoke with Business Insider said the experience was much the same in-store.

"At first, people were just straight up confused," an employee told Business Insider. "They weren’t upset. They were like, ‘Okay, maybe something’s temporary with our store alone.’ But the moment they heard it could be hours, that’s when people started getting frustrated."

That same Target employee described their experience during the weekend malfunction, saying that they were in the middle of checking out a customer when it happened. They had successfully scanned every product, aside from a small water pistol.

"I kept scanning, but it wouldn’t let me scan this one last item," they said. "I was like, ‘Oh, no. I can’t let this happen. I’m going to total this out before it all crashes."

That last customer was able to escape with her purchases, aside from the water gun.

"And then it kind of just broke out into chaos," the employee said.

… but many stores worked to keep their customers informed about what was happening.

Northfoto / Shutterstock

The Target employees who spoke to Business Insider said that their managers and team leads worked to inform shoppers about the outages from the get-go, through announcements over the intercom.

"They did a pretty good job of keeping everyone informed on what was happening," Smith said.

Workers were relieved to hear the issue was global, but many customers had the opposite reaction.

Getty/Boston Globe

"We were actually told it was global about five minutes after it initially happened," one employee said.

Two employees told Business Insider that they were relieved to hear that the issue wasn’t just affecting their store.

But another employee added that many shoppers mistakenly became concerned that the glitch was the result of a widespread security breach, like the one that affected the chain in 2014.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

DON’T MISS: Target just unrolled its highly anticipated Vineyard Vines collaboration, but shoppers are complaining that the clothing has already sold-out

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Áine Cain)