United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), a major food distributor to more than 30,000 retailers across North America, noticed “unauthorized activity” on its information technology systems in early June 2025, triggering a prompt cybersecurity response. The company, the largest wholesaler to Whole Foods Market and which delivers around 250,000 SKUs to various grocery stores such as Walmart and Target, had to close down its whole network by Friday evening, June 6, in order to contain the breach. This extreme but necessary step severely affected UNFI’s order fulfillment and order processing, having a trickle-down effect along the retail food supply chain.
Widespread impact on retailers
The most apparent effect of the cyberattack has been bare shelves in many grocery stores, including Whole Foods stores throughout the United States. Shoppers reported spotting bare shelves and freezers where they normally would find breakfast cereal, pasta, snacks, frozen corn, ice cream, and milk. In Washington, D.C., Business Insider noticed extreme shortages of products at Whole Foods that they documented, and the same was documented at other locations throughout North America. The disruption affected not just national chains but also smaller family stores that rely on UNFI’s distribution network.
The cyberattack crippled both UNFI’s delivery system and retailers’ capacity to order. Whole Foods workers reported that they couldn’t place orders on food coming in during the weekend, so they were nervous about prolonged shortages. In an internal memo obtained by a worker and published by Bloomberg, Whole Foods explained to employees that the cyberattack had “affected their ability to select and ship products from their warehouses,” but in public statements described them as “temporary supply issues.” Several of the workers in the grocery stores expressed their frustrations on social media, one of whom was an Arkansas worker who stated that there was nothing left in their frozen cooler and bread oven.
Financial impacts
The stock market’s reaction to the cyberattack was swift and spectacular. The shares of UNFI fell about 7% on Monday, June 9, and another 10% on Tuesday, for a total decline of about 17% since the news of the attack. At $30.57 as of June 11, UNFI shares have shown investors’ worries regarding the company’s failure to protect itself from cyber attacks and possible long-term effects on its business functions. For the third quarter ending May 2025, UNFI recorded a net loss of $7 million compared with $21 million during the same quarter last year despite sales rising 7.5% to $8.1 billion.
UNFI CEO Sandy Douglas indicated that the company is “projecting to get back to a place that feels similar to our former operational capability” by Sunday, June 15. The company set into motion its incident response plan and initiated containment efforts and worked with third-party cybersecurity professionals and law enforcement to gain information on the breach. Douglas made a defense of UNFI’s cyber defense strategies but did admit review necessity, saying, “The bad guys out there are always thinking about how to innovate and come up with new ways to gain access to systems. we just got hacked, so we will be going over every aspect of our defense.”
Industry vulnerability exposed
It is increasing the vulnerability of the food supply chain to cyberattacks that is exposed by this attack. As the grocery industry depends more and more on interdependent computer networks, a single cyber incident can shut down the commodity flow to thousands of outlets. The food and agriculture sector is positioned on one of 16 key infrastructures by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, deeming its value to national security. In recent years, there have also been similar attacks on other corporations in the food industry, including JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat distributor, which paid an $11 million ransom after a cyberattack led to plant closures.
Read more: Torrid to close 180 stores in the U.S. in surprise – These are all the locations and cities where it will close across the…
Read more: A display case allegedly falls on her in the store and now the woman is suing Costco for $14 million
