The global outage of Microsoft machines caused widespread chaos, but for cash fans it was a moment to wallow in “I told you so” vindication as digital payment systems collapsed.
Australia was hit by a “bad” software conflict between US contractor CrowdStrike and systems running Windows on Friday afternoon, causing online banking services to crash and supermarkets and other stores to tell customers they could only accept cash.
On the Facebook page ‘Cash is King’, one user posted an image of supermarket cash registers closed and displaying the ‘blue screen of death’, showing they were out of service.
“So when it suits them, cash is fine,” the user commented with shrug and laugh emojis.
“Well, I’ll be damned… once again it proves that cash is king,” another user responded.
“I just got home from work… My wife is already asking me for money, I don’t remember her asking me for it in a long time,” said another.
“What a joke! And they want to get rid of cash!” said another.
There were many other posts and comments calling for vindication.
Microsoft’s global service outage caused supermarket self-checkouts to crash across the country
“Everyone who had cash today is laughing because the banking system has collapsed,” one person posted.
“Here’s another example of what we’re all talking about,” said another.
“The banks and government will hate this, they are banging their heads against the wall because it proves we are right,” said another.
Another user posted that the day’s events left a lesson even for those who carried cash.
“Just a reminder that while cash is the best option, make sure you have plenty of small bills, dollars and small change,” they said.
‘At times like this, when businesses that have cut back on cash are seeing an influx of cash users, today it has been shown that they do not have enough cash on hand to give us correct change as they continue to receive $50 bills.
‘Put aside many small things to have energy in moments like this. I hope the world wakes up after today, but I doubt it…
Several people at X also felt fine using cash.
For those who advocate maintaining a physical currency, Friday’s technological disruption provided a “warning moment”
“Cash is king… How’s your digital ID going Canberra?” tweeted former Victoria Police officer and Liberal Democrat candidate Krystle Mitchell.
“On behalf of all us ethnic people who have our money stashed in the garden. LOLZ,” tweeted The Australian columnist Gemma Tognini.
“Not just ethnicities,” one user X said in response.
‘Some of us, born and raised in Australia, were also laughing today as we walked to the tills.’
Retired basketball star Andrew Bogut found joy in a tweet that showed the harsh reality of doing business without the conveniences of self-checkout.
“Mc Donald’s Berwick only accepts cash and uses an old calculator to calculate everyone’s change,” one person tweeted with several laughing emojis to which Bogut added a few of his own.
Huge queues formed outside Coles, Woolworths and 7-Eleven stores on Friday after self-service checkouts were not working.
At Woolworths, the technology crisis caused many, but not all, point-of-sale payment machines to fail and be unable to process transactions.
This led to the temporary closure of six Woolies, with the supermarket giant saying there were “fewer tills available than usual” in some stores.
One man posted on X: “90% of the tills at my local Woolworths had the (blue screen of death) on them. Queues a mile long, absolute chaos. National outage? Local?”
Meanwhile, Coles Broadway, one of Sydney’s largest supermarkets, has sent staff to the entrance to inform shoppers: “Cash only. EFTPOS not working.”
Chaotic scenes erupted in many supermarkets with digital payment systems down, causing some stores to close completely.
Another Coles branch was seen lowering its shutters as its manager decided to close for the day.
A frustrated shopper posts that she has a trolley full of groceries and Woolworths announces over the loudspeaker that they are unable to accept cards at the moment due to a “Microsoft outage” and can only accept cash. What?!
“I hope it works again when it’s over or I’ll be leaving my cart and running to the nearest ATM.”
One shopper wrote: “All the POS machines at my local store and bank have started to fail one by one. I’m wondering if this is a widespread problem.”
On X, @Till_Payments posted ‘#ServiceUpdate: A widespread IT service outage is affecting Australian businesses across the country’ and added a click to get ‘live updates as our team works to resolve the issue’.
