Target suffers register outages nationwide

MIAMI – A widespread outage affecting registers at Target stores caused havoc nationwide Saturday.

Shoppers in stores across the country are using social media to report long lines as the checkout systems remain down.

"This is how you bring America to a standstill," a Minnesota journalist shared on Twitter alongside a photo of an error message at a cashier's stand. "Every single register at the Richfield [Target] is down."

According to Target's customer service Twitter account, the company is aware of the problem and attempting to repair the issue.

"We are aware of a systems issue in store and are working as quickly as possible to get this fixed," the @AskTarget account Tweeted. "Thank you for your patience!"

Service was restored to most stores by late in the afternoon.

Customers in some locations said store employees were handing out snacks to frustrated people waiting in line.

It's not clear how many Target stores were affected or what caused the outage. The company's corporate office did not immediately respond to requests for details about the issue.

Target has 1,800 locations in the United States.