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Hack on Stop & Shop Owner Expected to Weigh On Instacart’s Results

A customer exits a Stop & Shop grocery store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Saturday, July 13, 2024. Stop & Shop said Friday it will close 32 underperforming grocery stores in the Northeast US by the end of the year. Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Instacart said Tuesday that it expects a cybersecurity incident affecting Stop & Shop and Hannaford owner Royal Ahold Delhaize NV to have a “small impact” on the online platform’s fourth-quarter outlook. 

Instacart, which offers delivery from Ahold’s stores in the US including Hannaford and Stop & Shop sites, said it expects the value of all transactions processed through its platform to total between $8.5 billion and $8.65 billion in the three months ending December. That outlook takes into account the impact of a cyber outage across Ahold’s websites, the company said. 

Instacart’s disclosure offers an early look into how the incident at Ahold may weigh on the grocer’s own finances and ripple across its supply chain. In a Nov. 8 statement, Ahold said it had recently detected a “cybersecurity issue within its US network” and was investigating. The company said the incident and its response has affected some services, including a “number of pharmacies and certain e-commerce operations.” Stores under various US brands remain open. 

As of Tuesday, Hannaford’s website remained inaccessible, featuring a message that explained the company was “having technical issues.” Ahold’s brands on Instacart’s website were operational.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.