Whole Foods Market, now owned by Amazon.com Inc, said credit card information was stolen from the taprooms, restaurants and other venues in some of its stores, the company disclosed Thursday.
The point of sale system used in its 450 or so U.S. stores is separate from those venues and was not involved in the hack, nor was Amazon.com’s systems, which are not connected to the Whole Foods system.
Whole Foods has 17 stores in North Carolina, including those in Durham, Raleigh, Cary, and Chapel Hill in the Triangle area. Others are in Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston Salem, Burlington and Asheville.
Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion and began lowering some of the high end grocery store’s prices immediately.
More than 40 Whole Foods stores sell beer on tap and restaurants are common in its stores, including those in the Triangle.
Whole Foods said it is investigating the hack and has hired a top cyber security forensics firm and notified law enforcement.
This is just the latest in what seems like a hurricane season of cyber crimes. At WRAL Techwire’s recent Executive Exchange on hacking, IBM security expert Jim Boyles, asked why we’re seeing so many businesses hacked now, answered with one word: “Money.”
