Co-op gives away free food due to error

A major supermarket mistakenly gave away several products for free just days after a suspected glitch.

Co-op allowed customers to get items like Loyd Grossman pasta sauce, Costa ground coffee and Fox’s cookies for free on the Deliveroo app after a “clerical error”.

Darren, a shopper from Lancashire, was able to get around £80 worth of goods for just £3.29, according to the BBC. Robinsons squash was discounted from £1.50 to 15p a bottle, the broadcaster reported.

Customer Sally Marie, also from Lancashire, was able to buy six packets of biscuits, ten jars of tomato sauce, 15 bottles of squash and two eight-packs of Diet Coke for a cheap price.

"I was sat on the sofa and thought I'd give it a go before the Co-op ran out of stock. I quickly installed Deliveroo, and to my surprise, I found some items priced at zero,” she said.

Another customer said they found Airwick Reed Diffusers selling for £5.45 less than their usual price, according to the BBC.

A Co-op spokesperson said the low prices were the result of “a clerical error”. “This was quickly resolved, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

“A small number of prices were showing incorrectly on our Deliveroo shop for a few hours last night,” the spokesperson added.

It comes after the supermarket was forced to shut down parts of its IT system after hackers tried to gain “unauthorised access” to its network earlier this week.

After the attempted cyber attack, a Co-op spokesperson said the supermarket had “taken proactive steps to keep our systems safe”.

“All our stores and funeral homes are trading as usual. We are working hard to reduce any disruption to our services,” it said.

“We are not asking our members or customers to do anything differently at this point. We will continue to provide updates as necessary.”

Co-op was the second supermarket to be targeted by ransomware over the past few weeks, with M&S left with empty shelves and its market value wiped following a cyber attack.