Whole Foods warned staff in June 2025 that a cybersecurity incident at its primary distributor, UNFI, could disrupt deliveries and leave some products unavailable. UNFI said the interruption was temporary: it reported more normalized deliveries by June 26 and normalized commercial operating capacity by July 16. Those company-wide milestones do not establish that every store was fully stocked on either date.
Why was Whole Foods out of stock?
UNFI, Whole Foods’ primary distributor, detected “unauthorized activity” on some IT systems on June 5, 2025. It took certain systems offline to contain the incident, temporarily affecting its ability to fulfill and distribute customer orders. UNFI disclosed the incident in a June 9 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and said its investigation into the incident’s scope and impact was at an early stage (UNFI’s June 9, 2025 SEC filing).
Whole Foods told staff that UNFI’s disruption affected its ability to select and ship products from warehouses, potentially changing normal delivery schedules and product availability. The staff guidance described the issue to customers as “temporary supply challenges,” according to TechCrunch’s June 11, 2025 report.
That supply-chain mechanism helps explain why a distributor incident could show up as empty spaces on grocery shelves: if warehouse systems cannot support normal product selection and shipping, stores may receive fewer or later deliveries. TechCrunch reported out-of-stock notices at one store it visited. That is evidence of a local effect, not proof that every Whole Foods location or product category faced the same shortage.
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Did the UNFI cyberattack affect Whole Foods?
Yes. Whole Foods said the incident could affect deliveries and product availability because UNFI, its primary distributor, was having trouble selecting and shipping products normally. Whole Foods spokesperson Nathan Cimbala told TechCrunch: “We are working to restock our shelves as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused for customers.”
UNFI CEO Sandy Douglas later described the distributor’s reach: on a July 16, 2025 business update call, he cited 30,000 customer locations in North America and 11,000 suppliers. Those figures describe UNFI’s stated scale, not the number of Whole Foods stores affected. Douglas also said, “We never want to be the reason that a local grocer is out of stock on a product that their shoppers count on.”
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When did UNFI restore deliveries?
UNFI’s recovery statements describe several company-wide milestones, rather than a date by which every store’s shelves were confirmed full.
| Date | What UNFI reported |
|---|---|
| June 5, 2025 | UNFI became aware of unauthorized activity on certain IT systems and took some systems offline as a containment measure. |
| June 9, 2025 | UNFI publicly disclosed the incident in an SEC filing, reporting a temporary effect on fulfillment and distribution of customer orders. |
| June 16, 2025 | CEO Sandy Douglas later said the primary electronic ordering systems had been restored, 10 days after they were taken offline. |
| June 26, 2025 | UNFI said the incident was contained, core systems were restored, and product deliveries were at more normalized levels. |
| July 16, 2025 | Douglas said commercial operating capacity had returned to normalized levels. Average outbound fill rates, on-time deliveries, and units shipped were at or near pre-incident levels, but performance varied among distribution centers and some business processes still needed to catch up. |
The June 26 status appears in UNFI’s incident update. The later statements came from Douglas’s July 16, 2025 business update call. Restored ordering systems, more normalized deliveries, and normalized commercial capacity are different operational milestones; none by itself confirms that every Whole Foods store had every product available.
Was customer data exposed?
In a June 26, 2025 SEC filing, UNFI said it did not anticipate notifying individual consumers because the incident did not involve a breach of personal information or protected health information as defined by law. That is UNFI’s stated assessment of consumer information; it does not mean the incident had no business-system impact. The filing is available at UNFI’s June 26, 2025 SEC filing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is not known about the incident?
The cited public disclosures do not identify who carried out the incident, how access was obtained, or a confirmed malware type. UNFI’s June 9 filing said its assessment of the incident’s impact and scope was in its early stages. The confirmed description is unauthorized activity or a cybersecurity incident; more specific attribution is not established by these disclosures.
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