Picnic and Jumbo see extra demand after Albert Heijn outage
Picnic is expanding delivery capacity after Albert Heijn temporarily suspended online orders.
Follow-up to: Ahold investigates security incident, shops remain open Monday, 12 October 2026, 14:58
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The outage at Albert Heijn immediately affected competition in the online grocery market on Monday. Picnic reported an increase in orders, while Jumbo likewise said it was seeing greater online demand.
Picnic expects several thousand extra orders for Tuesday if demand remains unchanged. The delivery service has therefore expanded its capacity, a spokesperson told ANP. Jumbo confirmed that the number of online orders had increased, but provided no figures.
The new figures follow the security incident reported by Ahold Delhaize on Monday. The group took systems offline as a precaution after identifying a security problem in its network. As a result, websites, apps, customer service and logistics systems at Albert Heijn were among those affected.
Customers cannot currently order groceries online from Albert Heijn. The physical shops are open and the checkout systems are working. The company warns that electronic shelf labels may still show prices from the previous promotional period, meaning the price on the label may differ from the price at the checkout.
Personal loyalty systems are also temporarily unavailable. The supermarket is asking customers to keep receipts when they miss out on personal discounts, savings stamps or other benefits. Albert Heijn says it intends to compensate such customers later, but has not given a timeframe.
The extra demand at Picnic and Jumbo shows how quickly an outage in a major distribution system can affect competitors. Picnic says it is mainly deploying extra capacity for Tuesday. This is an operational response to current demand and says nothing yet about lasting changes in market shares.
Ahold Delhaize has not disclosed the technical cause, nor said whether personal data were affected. The company refers to a security problem and the preventive shutdown of systems. No timeframe has been given for restoring the Dutch services.
The incident also has a Belgian dimension. Delhaize, Albert Heijn’s Belgian sister chain, reported fewer effects on shops and online orders, according to Belga. The chain was still able to deliver on Monday, although internal systems and customer service were also limited. For customers in the Netherlands, the duration of the delivery and app outage remains the main uncertainty.
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The market effects and operational problems were confirmed by the companies involved and by Ahold Delhaize. Unknown points, such as the cause and possible data access, were not presented as facts.
- confirmed Picnic expects several thousand extra orders. — A spokesperson told ANP this. source
- confirmed Jumbo is seeing more online orders but is sharing no figures. — This is stated in the ANP report. source
- confirmed Albert Heijn has temporarily suspended online orders. — Albert Heijn reports that its logistics systems have temporarily been switched off. source
- confirmed The physical shops and checkout systems remain open and operational. — This is stated in Albert Heijn’s official media statement. source
- confirmed Delhaize was still able to deliver online on Monday. — The Brussels Times reports this on the basis of Belga. source
- confirmed Ahold Delhaize has not disclosed the cause or possible data access. — The company statement mentions only a security problem and systems taken offline as a precaution. source
Editor's note
The extra demand at Picnic and Jumbo was reported by the companies themselves and through ANP. At the time of publication, the cause, possible data access and end date of the outage were still unknown.Sources
- Meer bestellingen bij Picnic na cyberbeveiligingsincident AH — ANP via ZeelandNet
- Mediastatement inzake IT incident — Albert Heijn
- Ahold Delhaize takes precautionary measures following cybersecurity incident — Ahold Delhaize
- Delhaize and Albert Heijn hit by IT incident affecting customer service and online orders — The Brussels Times
The story so far
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 07:30 Websites and apps of Ahold shops hit by outage
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 08:28 IT incident hits three Ahold retail chains
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 10:58 Ahold shuts down systems after security incident
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 14:58 Ahold investigates security incident, shops remain open
- Monday, 12 October 2026, 16:01 Picnic and Jumbo see extra demand after Albert Heijn outage (this article)
More on this in Dutch media
- NRC — „albert heijn”
- NOS — „albert heijn”
- Het Parool — „albert heijn”