Long lines at Milwaukee Target stores affected in nationwide tech trouble; all stores operational this evening

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58/CBS News) --Target acknowledged nationwide "system issues" affecting its stores on Saturday that prevented its customers from checking out at registers. The outage caused long checkout lines at Target locations, with upset customers posting images and video on social media. 

Milwaukee area Target customers also waited in long checkout lines Saturday. Some shoppers say Target employees warned customers before they walked into the store. 

"As we were approaching the doors they had told us they were handing out gift cards because they were having problems with their registers," said Sue Anderson, who was shopping at the New Berlin Target location. 

Anderson said customers were given gift cards, coffee, and snacks. 

Some shoppers at the New Berlin Target left their carts full of items behind, as employees took their names and contact information so customers could come back later to complete their purchases. 

"There were a whole bunch of carts lined up with items in it with little white pieces of paper," Shopper Linda Maas said. "I think their reaction was great. That they were willing to hold on to these items in carts for people and contact them once their system was up. That's why Target's a great store, I love it." 

Target issued a statement to CBS News thanking customers for their patience and employees for their quick response. "The temporary outage earlier today was the result of an internal technology issue that lasted for approximately two hours. Our technology team worked quickly to identify and fix the issue, and we apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this caused for our guests. After an initial but thorough review, we can confirm that this was not a data breach or security-related issue, and no guest information was compromised at any time," the company said.