The upscale supermarket chain Whole Foods Market says it’s investigating an apparent payment card data breach that affects facilities located in some of its stores, although none of its checkout lanes.
“Whole Foods Market recently received information regarding unauthorized access of payment card information used at certain venues such as taprooms and full table-service restaurants located within some stores,” the supermarket chain says in a Thursday statement. “These venues use a different point-of-sale system than the company’s primary store checkout systems, and payment cards used at the primary store checkout systems were not affected.”
As for actions they have taken, the Whole Foods breach notice states:
When Whole Foods Market learned of this, the company launched an investigation, obtained the help of a leading cyber security forensics firm, contacted law enforcement, and is taking appropriate measures to address the issue.
Whole Foods set up a new web page that allows customers to see if a store they’ve visited is involved in the breach. The website does not offer any further instructions to customers potentially compromised.
The Austin based chain has 449 stores in the United States, making it the ninth largest U.S. food retailer by sales volume. It has more than 87,000 employees, 13 stores in Canada and nine in the United Kingdom, and had $15.7 billion in sales in 2016. Whole Foods was recently purchased by Amazon.