Coles shuts supermarkets due to payment system outage

Coles was forced to close its supermarkets for four hours on Friday evening after a “technical issue” left it unable to process payments at the point-of-sale.

The supermarket giant said in a statement that its supermarkets were "closed temporarily due to a technical issue with processing payments in our stores.” 

The problems, which appear to be with Coles’ checkout systems, started at around 5.00pm AEDT and were resolved at about 9.10pm.

Customers arriving at stores found the shutters down and were turned away. However, Coles Express and Coles Liquor stores remained open for trade.

The company apologised for the outage and said it would offer bonus points and free home delivery for some online purchases.

"Coles supermarkets nationally have reopened for trade after a technical issue with our point of sale system meant we were briefly unable to process transactions this afternoon," it said late on Friday night.

"To thank customers for their patience while our team worked hard to get us back up and running, Coles supermarket shoppers will receive triple flybuys points on their food and groceries this weekend.

"And to help customers who were unable to complete their shopping on Friday afternoon, Coles Online is offering free home delivery on orders of $50 and above until Sunday 18 October."