A software update grounded fliers here in Southwest Florida and nationwide. It also kept some businesses from doing anything with a computer.
"The credit card machines aren’t working — chips, the tap, the scan, nothing is working," said Nieshia James-Contreas, the general manager of Nu Image Cleaners.
James-Contreas told NBC2 that this was the most difficult day working in her 10 years here. This is due to the CrowdStrike outage.
"In the mornings, I’m here by myself, so when I have customers at the counter, customers in my drive-thru and there’s nothing I can do," James-Contreas said.
It's hard to run the business under these circumstances.
"People depend on us to have their stuff ready," James-Contreas said. "When they come in with their credit cards, nobody carries cash anymore; so you know they come in needing their clothes for special events, especially since it’s the weekend, and we can’t process any orders."
Right next door, NMR Restaurant is having the same issue.
"I can’t go to the bank, I can’t get any money, I can’t deposit this money with DoorDash," said Novilus Petit-Frere, the general manager of NMR Restaurant.
While these businesses on Cleveland Avenue are waiting for this nightmare to end, they say moments like these are important to carry cash on you.
"You should have cash on hand. Anything can happen," Petit-Frere said.
"I think, just to be aware, you know," James-Contreas said. "Sometimes you can’t just always depend on this internet computer system."