For some H-E-B shoppers, a computer glitch made their holiday shopping even merrier.
BURLESON, Texas — Christmas came early for some Burleson H-E-B shoppers this week.
After a glitch shut down the store’s computer system and brought check out lines to a standstill, the store’s manager announced that the store would bag up everybody’s groceries for free.
A video captured in the H-E-B store shows long lines of shoppers waiting for the system to come back online when the store manager makes the announcement.
“We love having you as our customers, thank you for waiting with us,” the manager says in the video. “Unfortunately, the computers are not coming back up right now, so today everything that you have we are going to bag you up and we hope that every one of you has a very merry Christmas and continue to shop with us.”
Customers applauded the move and went home with a little extra room in their holiday budget.
It was a “Godsend” to one customer who said she was waiting in line for two hours and got a cart full of groceries to feed her kids and grandkids for the holidays, she told WFAA.
“(It) brought tears to my eyes (and) we all gave them a round of applause,” Melinda Brown wrote. “I asked the checker ‘for real?’ and she said ‘yep! Merry Christmas. What a gift!”
In a statement, H-E-B said it is committed to serving its customers year-round, especially during the holidays.
“During this busy holiday season when our registers were temporarily down at one of our stores, we gave all those with full baskets their groceries for free,” the statement reads. “The customer experience is at the heart of what we do!”