Cash to the Rescue as Woolworths Loses Cashless Capability
Oct 19, 2023
Hot on the heels of a major payment outage in Canada, Woolworths stores across Australia went cash-only due to internet connection problems that rendered cashless payments impossible.
Between 20 and 30 stores in several different states were affected, with staff responding quickly by placing hand-written signs at entrances that explained EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) systems were down and the stores were only able to accept cash.
Stores remained open with cash still being able to be used. The [outage] cause has been identified and EFTPOS is being restored... We thank everyone for bearing with us this morning.
A similar problem occurred recently in Canada, with the problem there caused by outages at payment systems provider Moneris. Locals reported businesses were operating cash-only and advised people to bring cash from home where possible as queues for ATMs were growing.
The day before the Woolworths outage, customers of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) reported being unable to access online banking services, with many also saying they could not reach the bank by phone.
These events reinforce the importance of keeping cash available and usable—with governments and central banks taking actions such as improving access to cash and banning cashless businesses—to ensure transactions can continue on occasions when cashless systems fail.