Safeway stores across Canada briefly shut by computer glitch

A computer malfunction forced Safeway to close all of its stores across Canada for a brief period on Tuesday morning.

The glitch caused the tills to go down at roughly 185 locationsfor about one hour, between 8:15 and 9:15 a.m. MT, said Safeway spokeswoman Cynthia Thompson.

The stores have technical issues from time to time but there is no indication of a wider problem, she said.

Safeway stores are concentrated mainly in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.There are about six in northwestern Ontario.

Sobeys bought Safeway for $5.8billion in 2013.