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Makro says all its stores are now open following issues that that caused disruption in its trading system, resulting in closures of all its outlets around the country on Thursday morning.
"Makro experienced some system related issues this morning impacting our ability for stores to operate normally. This has now been resolved and all stores are operational…We would like to extend our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused to our customers," said Makro Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Welisa Nene.
Makro had tweeted an apology to customers at around 13:00.
"We apologise for the inconvenience caused while our stores have been closed today. We were experiencing a technical issue which has now been resolved. We are now open for trading," it said.
Earlier in the day, customers were turned away at Makro stores in the Western Cape and Gauteng, while some remained in hopes that outlets would reopen soon.
Makro Woodmead in Sandton remained close past lunchtime, even though Makro tweeted that stores had reopened.
Massmart flagged the issue of downtime at Makro during the group’s interim results announcement in August. It said the system downtime was due to the implementation of a new system as the retailer switched from its legacy online system early in 2019.
But last year the downtime issues only affected online sales, which accounted for a mere 0.8% of all sales in Makro outlets. Signs at some of the stores on Thursday indicated that till points were also affected this time around.
Makro has 22 stores around the country trading in general merchandise, food and liquor. Nene confirmed that the downtime only impacted these 22 Makro stores across the country, and no other Massmart chains.
