Macy’s had hoped for a rush of shoppers on Black Friday. But it appears the crowds were too much of a good thing.
Macy’s credit card payment system buckled due to a higher than anticipated volume of transactions, the retailer said, leading to delays that slowed the checkout process at department stores around the country Friday.
The Cincinnati retailer said in a statement that the issue caused some transactions to take longer to process. Tweets by the department store to customers specified the issue affected credit and gift card transactions.
Macy’s said Friday afternoon that it had “fully resolved today’s system issues” and that it did not anticipate any additional delays.
Customers at the Macy’s at Westside Pavilion said the credit card payment issues forced them to either pay for their purchases with cash or come back at a later time.
Consuela Amaya, 55, of Los Angeles, was buying shoes and clothes for her daughters at Macy’s around 10 a.m. when the cashier said her Macy’s card had been rejected. After a different credit card also failed, her daughter, Danely Amaya, 18, said they just paid cash and left.
Dhruv Iyer, 19, was in line to purchase shirts around 1 p.m. when it became clear that there were payment issues. A cashier told him that the store could put a hold on his card and charge him for his purchase two weeks from now, but Iyer declined. His credit card was eventually cleared.
Macy’s Chief Executive Jeff Gennette told CNBC earlier Friday morning that online and in-store traffic on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were “strong.”
“Good start to the whole Black Friday shopping season,” he said in the CNBC interview.
