The technology news site, TechCrunch.com, reported Wednesday afternoon that grocery delivery company Mercato exposed over 70,000 customer orders in a January breach, including home and email addresses. A Mercato official told TechCrunch the breach did not include credit card information.
The Greater Gouda, which began using Mercato in March 2020 for online grocery ordering and home delivery, does not believe any of its customers were affected. According to TechCrunch, the affected orders occurred between September 2015 and November 2019, before The Greater Gouda’s relationship with Mercato had begun.
“We’re outside the affected timeframe, but it’s still serious,” Greater Gouda owner Mark Smiles said. “The fact that Mercato hasn’t notified those who were affected nor contacted us to say it is on top of this issue is very concerning.”
Smiles said The Greater Gouda was actively seeking an alternative to Mercato’s service prior to news of the data breach. For now, customers who are uncomfortable using Mercato are encouraged to call-in their orders directly to The Greater Gouda instead.
“Mercato started off with good service during last year’s lockdown when grocery delivery was at its peak,” Smiles said, “but their reliability has been falling off ever since.”
He said The Greater Gouda has delivered many orders using its own staff to ensure customers receive them, even though that’s Mercato’s job under the contract.
“We hope to move our grocery ordering and delivery to a platform similar to our online gift and wine sales,” Smiles said, “but it’s hard to find platforms that will work with small grocery and food markets.”
Smiles doesn’t have a timetable yet for the change in platforms, but said, “It’s important. We have to take care of the customers. They’re our priority.”
