It was a tough afternoon to be at Target.

After what appeared to be a nationwide register outage Saturday, some stores reported they were up and running again.

The outage tried the patience of some, while others did their best to take it in stride. Shoppers posted to social media about long waits at the checkout line and then leaving stores empty-handed Saturday afternoon.

“We are aware of a systems issue in store and are working as quickly as possible to get this fixed,” Target tweeted from its @AskTarget account in response to shoppers’ tweets. “Thank you for your patience!”

There have been more than 5,000 posts on Downdetector.com about stores experiencing problems Saturday.

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At a Target in the Arlington, Virginia, outside of the nation’s capital, two greeters were stationed at the door to warn new shoppers the system was down and to apologize to those inside who had to wait to finish their purchase.

Manager Sergio Delgado was busy, too, working the checkout counter and bagging purchases, trying to play catch-up to a line of around 30 people waiting at registers. Delgado said the system had finally returned, but that he was so busy he doesn’t know long it was down. He was also surprised to learn the outage was nationwide.

Delgado said the situation was finally “under control” thanks to his “great team” of workers, clad in red T-shirts. During the outage, the store was only able to fulfill pre-purchased, online orders.

At a Los Angeles store at Obama Boulevard and La Cienega, it was business as usual with registers running and shoppers leaving stores with full carts.

It is unknown if the outage is over in all of Target’s 1,849 U.S. stores. 

“We’re aware that guests are currently unable to make purchases at Target stores. Our teams are troubleshooting now and we apologize for the inconvenience,” Target said in a statement to USA TODAY. “We will provide an update as soon as possible.

In Boston, Nicole Florence, a Target security officer, was tasked with delivering the disappointing news to shoppers outside the South Bay shopping center Target in the working class Dorchester neighborhood.

“Target’s closed!” she yelled as customer after customer walked up to the front sliding doors where she was positioned. “System’s down! It’s a global issue.”

“You can’t get Starbucks. You can’t get Pizza Hut,” she said, referring to two options typically offered inside this location. “You can’t get anything.”

The store had been closed for about an hour as of 3:30 p.m. EST, she said. Some shoppers inside when the system crashed were able to finish and pay with their cards, but no more could enter.

It was an inconvenience – particularly for people who had paid to take the bus to the nearby drop-off. And it brought confusion on a day many people reserve for shopping. 

“This is terrible,” a woman shouted among the gaggle of Target patrons who had gathered outside. They had to find a plan B for their shopping needs this day.  

Social media reaction

Hashtags #Targetdown and #Targetoutage quickly trended Saturday. Here are some of the post:

Some stores are reportedly passing out snacks, @WesleyBout tweeted.

Some shoppers are reporting signs of store closings on doors at their Target stores.

It did help with impulse shopping, @MrDanHeaver tweeted.

@writeriowa tweeted reminding fellow shoppers that it wasn’t the fault of employees.

This story will be updated.

Contributing: Doug Stanglin, Joey Garrison, Michelle Maltais

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko