GREENSBORO – The Rock Solid cash register system used at Willey’s store wasn’t solid enough to weather last week’s global tech outage.
Late Friday morning, July 19, Rob Hurst says the store’s cash registers and payment systems stopped working unexpectedly. The store’s staff quickly switched to handling business manually, accepting only cash.
For a while, Hurst says some staff became runners to go check prices which are usually in the register system and each shelf, but not on the products themselves. Hurst and his staff soon began handing out pads and pencils for customers to write down the prices of items, asking that they limit each shopping trip to 10 things.
Hurst says part of the response involved teaching store staff how to make change since they’d always relied on the register, but now needed to calculate it manually.
The problem, created by Rock Solid’s systems that depend on Microsoft software was caused by an update related to the global Crowdstrike tech outage that shut down airlines, hospitals and businesses worldwide.
Hurst says the problem was resolved by 4 p.m., and the store finished the day normally. He was glad it resolved itself because he was afraid the ATM machine would run out of $20 bills.
Unfortunately the problem returned Saturday at 7 a.m. when the store opened according to Hurst, who says they switched back to the manual system. After Friday’s experience they discovered their old credit card machines still worked and were able to switch back to offering other payment options than cash-only.
Customers adapted well, said Hurst, and some even seemed to enjoy the manual, cash-only environment as it brought back memories of days gone by.
Hurst says he is impressed by the store’s staff. They “picked things up to keep the store open. Teens quickly learned to count cash and add up items for customers.” Everyone at the store really stepped up to keep things going on a busy summer weekend, he said.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
