HARLINGEN — Many customers walked flabbergasted through the empty parking lot back to their vehicle.
They had tried to enter Walmart like any other normal Sunday.
But this time, the customers were asked to return later because the Walmart store was closed due to technical, computer issues.
And customers were not even allowed to walk around the store while the system was down.
There was no official statement made by management Sunday as to what the problem was.
Walmart employees outside the store only said the store computer system had crashed.
According to store employees it happened at about noon.
And the store closed for more than five hours, from late morning to 5 p.m.
Throughout the day employees flagged drivers down at the store street entrances and at the two main store front doors to notify them the store was closed until further notice.
And it stayed closed until around 5 p.m. when the computer system came back on.
“We’re good, we’re back up,” one store employee stated at the door to her co-workers.
At that point the employees began to reassure customers pulling into the parking lot the store was open for business.
But it did not last long.
After customers had already began to fill the parking lot and walked into the store to do some shopping, it closed again.
About 15 minutes later all the customers were asked to leave because the system had crashed again.
According to store employees, the store close its doors to the public until the technical issues were resoled.
Store officials said the store was finally reopened to the public at around 6:30 p.m.
After that everything was normal again.
Shoppers were pushing their carts through the store.
And at the checkout lines, store items were being scanned.
And all the while more families and customers began to walk into the store that had been closed most of the afternoon.
