Texas H-E-B supermarket gives free groceries for Christmas amid register outage

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News on Dec 24, 2025

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Texas supermarket chain H-E-B gifted customers free groceries this week when a computer glitch upended the registers at a Fort Worth-area store, resulting in a Christmas miracle for those already in line.

The Burleson location’s technical error caused “dead” registers on Monday, leaving customers unable to check out, as shopper David Davidson described the ordeal to local Fox affiliate KDFW.

A video captured by another shopper shows customers begin to groan as an employee named Destanie explains to the store that the “computers are not coming back up right now.” However, the mood quickly shifts when she announces that everyone would instead get a holiday to remember.

“So today, everything that you have, we are going to bag you up, and we hope every one of you have a very Merry Christmas and continue to shop with us,” Destanie says, followed by applause and laughter filling the store as customers realize they’re being given their groceries for free.

According to KDFW, the kind gesture applied to everyone who was already shopping at the time of the register outage, though incoming customers had to be turned away until the computer issue could be fixed.

Mabrie Jackson, the company’s managing director of public affairs, told the outlet that the situation was emblematic of H-E-B’s “commit(ment) to serving our customers year-round and especially during the holidays.”

“During this busy holiday season when our registers were temporarily down at one of our stores, we gave all those with full baskets their groceries for free,” Jackson said. “The customer experience is at the heart of what we do!”

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