Coles stores have reopened after the company fixed an IT glitch that had shut down registers and forced customers to abandon their shopping trolleys.
A Coles spokesperson said all stores had reopened nationally after "a technical issue with our point of sale system".
"To thank customers for their patience while our team worked hard to get us back up and running, Coles supermarket shoppers will receive triple flybuys points on their food and groceries this weekend", the spokesperson said.
She said those who had to abandon their shopping would receive free home delivery on orders over $50 until Sunday 18 October.
The company did not provide detail on the exact cause of the outage.
Earlier, disgruntled customers across the country posted photos to social media of shuttered doors and malfunctioning checkout registers.
Coles has more than 800 stores nationally.
Customers were forced to abandon their shopping trolleys and exit stores, leaving staff to return perishable food to fridges.
One customer in Asquith in northern Sydney tweeted that she was halfway through a shop when she was told all cash registers were not working.
"Off to Woolies," she wrote.
Others found the irony in Coles registers "going down", in a reference to the supermarket's catchy advertisements.
Earlier, a Coles spokeswoman said its Coles Express and Coles Liquor stores were unaffected and remained open for trade.
During the outage, Woolworths tweeted that its stores were all continuing to trade as normal.
"Our payment systems are up and running," the tweet said.
Woolworths experienced a similar technical glitch in 2018 when checkouts in 500 of its stores were unable to process sales for more than 30 minutes.
Woolworths shoppers were also forced to abandoned their trolleys and leave the stores.
