TARGET IS CURRENTLY DOWN
BREAKING: Nationwide Target Outage Leaves Shoppers Stranded at Checkout Registers down, app crashing, and “digital wallets” vanishing—customers demand answers as Target systems go dark.
LIVE UPDATES BELOW
Shoppers flocked to social media this morning, sharing photos of abandoned carts and massive lines wrapping around store aisles. Reports indicate that the outage is affecting both in-store point-of-sale (POS) systems and the popular Target Circle app, effectively bringing the retail giant’s operations to a standstill during the busy holiday shopping rush.
“I just stood in line for 45 minutes only to be told they can’t take cards,” tweeted one frustrated customer from Chicago. “Target is completely down. Chaos.”
The Glitch: What We Know So Far The issues appear to have started around 8:00 AM EST, with reports spiking on outage tracking site DownDetector by over 4,000% in less than an hour.
- Registers Frozen: Employees are reporting that checkout screens are stuck on “connecting” or completely blacked out.
- App Crash: Users attempting to access the Target app are met with a “technical difficulties” error message.
- Wallet Errors: Perhaps most alarming, customers are reporting their “Target Circle Earnings” and gift card balances have temporarily disappeared from their digital wallets.
“It’s not just the registers,” posted a user on the r/Target subreddit. “I can’t even log in to reset my password. The whole backend seems fried.”
Is This a Cyber Attack? While social media is rife with speculation about a potential cyberattack or ransomware incident, Target has yet to issue an official statement confirming the cause of the blackout. In a brief response to a customer on X (formerly Twitter), the official Target Guest Service account stated: “We are aware of a systems issue impacting stores and online guests. Our teams are troubleshooting now.”
Experts suggest that while the symptoms—simultaneous app and POS failure—could indicate a malicious intrusion, they are just as likely the result of a botched software update or a cloud server failure.
What Shoppers Should Do Right Now If you are planning a Target run today, here is the advice from consumer experts:
- Bring Cash: Some stores are reportedly switching to manual cash-only transactions, though this is slow.
- Check the App Later: Do not panic if your rewards balance shows $0.00. This is likely a display error caused by the server disconnect and should resolve once systems are back online.
- Avoid Returns: Customer service desks are unable to process returns or look up receipts during the outage.
Target stock (TGT) has seen a slight dip in pre-market trading as investors react to the news of the disruption. We will update this story as more details become available.
LIVE UPDATES
11:30 UTC – Target Goes Offline. NO fix in sight
13:30 UTC – Offline POS at Targets GO Down
14:30 UTC – Target is still offline. Total Downtime – 3 Hours and continuing
16:00 UTC – Target is STILL offline. Total Downtime – 5 Hours and counting
18:00 UTC – Target is STILL offline. Total Downtime – 7 Hours and counting
19:00 UTC – Target is STILL offline. Total Downtime – 8 Hours and counting
20:00 UTC – Target is STILL offline. Total Downtime – 8 Hours and counting
