The problem isn't that a few stores ran out of bananas or one item for the day. Take a look at the pictures: entire sections like produce are basically empty.

The only time I've seen shelves that bare were at Kmart and Sears locations before they went bankrupt and shut down.

I took another look at the pictures. Notice all those stores where whole sections are out are in the Northeast. Probably they missed a delivery or two because of the weather. Plus during extreme weather grocery stores get shopped hard.

There was one picture of an empty banana set with a pineapple in the wrong spot - that's what I was referring to before.

The sole picture in San Francisco was the reset I mentioned.

But that's exactly the problem the article describes: That the moment something goes wrong the stores don't have any reserves anymore, because the system is too strictly set on reducing costs and spoilage, seemingly with a total disregard to consumer satisfaction and overall profit. Add to that crazy-sounding control schemes - which maybe is kinda normal in a country like the US without real employee protection laws, but is unthinkable in less free market capitalist societies.

Not sure why you defend your employer here. If the problem is real - which I'm in no position to judge - it would be in his best interest to notice it.

So you think stores should just keep a huge backstock of fresh produce just in case an extreme weather event or some other rare issue hits? That's going to lead to less fresh produce for the 350 days a year when everything goes smoothly.

The OTS system in the article also allows for exceptions - if there were bananas available the store could have stocked up on them. It's just so wrong on many levels - I could spend all day pointing them out, but this thread is getting bigger than I thought and I don't know if I can spend much more time on it. I was going to edit my original comment with more information but it doesn't look like I can anymore.

> So you think stores should just keep a huge backstock of fresh produce just in case an extreme weather event or some other rare issue hits?

Strawman. I said nothing of the sort. I'm taking the article at face value. The article reports that regularly, stores of your chain are understocked that much that you are losing money and customer loyalty. It is not saying those are special rare issues.

Now, there are two options: The article is wrong, or it is right. If it is wrong, then you need to change nothing internally. Customers will see in their nearest store that the stock is alright, some might even come out in support, a small welcome challenge for PR. But looking at this thread, at the comments not being a discussion about journalistic objectivity below your top-comment, there is some support for the thesis of the article. If the article is right, the system needs to be changed if you want to compete with the other stores that actually succeed in stocking the items customers came to the shop for. In that case, the impression I would get from the attitude you are reflecting here (and which according to the article is the one of management) is that parts of WF are burying the head in the sand, which would likely be disastrous for your company.

It is easy to optimize for the wrong metrics, especially big corporations. Short term shareholder value, cost reductions - cost reductions were echoed by management in the article as motivation for the OTS system. Combine that with a good portion of institutional inertia and wrongly placed respect for authority, and this is how companies die. Which, again, might not be at all what is happening here (and Amazon and stuff, I know). It just looks like an example of it, which I think is interesting.

I jumped ahead there and left a step of my reasoning out. The article describes a lack of backstock, due to OTS, causing out-of-stocks when stores have to miss a delivery or two. But if you assume that the vast majority of these issues were in fact caused by unpredictable events, then the only possible solution would be to keep large amounts of extra stock at all times, which is worse for the customer and the company in the end. Obviously the goal is for neither extreme to occur.

The article is wrong about the regularity of the issue, the "weird control systems" (not sure what connection you're seeing with employee protection laws), and the causes.

But you misunderstand me if you think I'm burying my head in the sand. I don't deny that Whole Foods has issues with its ordering processes. In fact, I think the company has been going in the wrong direction there for a long time. The article is just so, so off-base - originally I didn't intend to argue with it, but now I've become this guy: https://xkcd.com/386/

It will be interesting to see if Amazon can improve the situation through automation. Generally I've seen stores that use automated ordering systems be far worse with their out-of-stocks (Kroger, for instance).

Ah, now I think I do understand your position. Best of luck :)

Edit: Just to clarify, the connection with the control scheme and the supply issues as laid out in the article is that it forces employees and store manager to blindly follow the system. Employee protection laws in other countries would prevent "three strikes out" schemes, if the strikes are for "infractions" as small as having one of 400 boxes facing the wrong side, which is one example in the article. That just wouldn't fly in a german court of law, for example, where something like this definitely would end up.

Anecdotally, I have experienced the same phenomenon at several major grocery chains in Canada. City gets hit with a winter storm and Safeway, SuperStore, & Walmart all had empty produce & bread sections. I've also seen it in certain stores during summer months in the run up to a long weekend. Not saying the new supply chain software can't be the cause, but there does seem to be other reasonable explanations.

If those are the companies we should compare Whole Foods to, then I will stop going to Whole Foods and save 50%

During a canadian winter storm to have more than usual empty shelves is of course very reasonable ;) And I'm also used to having less products available in some supermarkets when nearing night time. The images shown in the article though seem ridiculous to me.

But I agree, absolutely possible that there are other explanations (including that there is no problem at all), but a wrongly prioritized supply chain scheme/software fits very well to the shown and described issues.

Are you from the Fraser Valley by any chance?

The article came out a day or so after I went to the Whole Foods in Pittsburgh, and for the first time, when the cashier asked if I'd found everything, I said quite strongly: "No!". There were really surprising gaps in availability -- there was no soy milk (fresh or shelf-stable), no rice milk, no stock of several types of yogurt, surprisingly slim pickings in several of the veggie sections, no vegetable stock, only the most expensive types of diced tomatoes left (no 365 brand), and a few other things. The cashier said it was probably because the delivery truck didn't make it the previous day because of snow, but was surprised because the truck had made it earlier that day. IANA whole foods employee, but this certainly jibes with reduced stocking levels increasing fragility under delivery misses. I've never seen my WFM that empty before.

The header image where the veggie section is basically empty is actually from Houston, so I'm going to assume that you're being willfully blind about the issues raised in the article.

It's not a regional issue, it's systemic.

Well, it's the result of a decision made by a company that was, at the time, having some difficulty competing, and was desperately trying to cut prices, and then soon thereafter, sold itself to Amazon. So the resemblance is not altogether coincidental.

Why are they resetting a section during shopping hours?

Even 30 years ago when I was a student worker in a food store that sort of task only happened after 22:00 when the last customers had left.

Most meat teams at WFM don't have overnight crews.

The thing is too, it's a snapshot. We don't know how long it looked like that, what time of the day it was, whether someone called out sick, etc.

Not particularly relevant to the article, but a fun fact is that in France -- there's no such thing as after hours reseting in grocery stores. When the store closes -- everyone goes home.

If store sales > shelf capacity, you have to intraday restock.

A lot of grocery stores have non-employees stocking shelves now, usually during the day. These are reps from the vendors, like potato chips or specialty foods that rent shelf space in the store are and responsible for maintaining them.