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Walmart is one of my local supermarkets, and I will do my stock up grocery shopping there every 3 weeks or so. Some items are much cheaper than my other local markets, I can buy Tetley tea, for instance, for sometimes up to a dollar less than other stores. Their price for Great Value Sweetener can be almost 2 dollars less than the cheap brand at another store. You have to know how to shop there. I do hate that items can be missing from shelves, but I never seem to be able to find everything I'm looking for at any of the supermarkets anymore anyway.
I won't buy their beef, though. It's not a great deal pricewise, and they carry select, not choice.
I have worked for this company for 10 years and have never heard of that on the floor, only the cashiers. The cashiers have zero knowledge of what is going on on the actual sales floor... they ring up what you have in your buggy, that's it.
If something is out of stock for awhile its going to be one of these reasons: The warehouse is out, the PI perpetual inventory is wrong... overstated (needs to be fixed and ordered), or the item has been deleted.
If something is out of stock for awhile its going to be one of these reasons:
1. Somebody sitting behind a desk hundreds of miles away doesn't know what's going on.
2. Walmart doesn't really care if you found what you were looking for, but to ask makes it sound like they really do.
I've noticed the same thing. When I shop there, they will be out of items for weeks. And some of my favorite brands are gone. I thought it was just our Walmart.
WalMart has been notorious for that for years, not just in the grocery aisles. When they sell out of something, the shelf will remain empty for months and months.
Some items are one shot deals... learn to read the labels to see if is a regular item or a GO...
T & C. What is the code on the label that denotes the "one of's". My example: I shop at Walmart, used to ALWAYS find the Sam's Club/Choice brand 20 ounce water, every week. Now when I go, one week its there, next week its not. 3 weeks later it magically re-appears. There is never a price slot or even a space for it on the shelves, but then next time in the same spot BAM, its there. Puzzling.
I have asked the folks on the floor, and they say it's a special. But how is it special if it used to be there every week? Then other times I ask and I'm told it is sold out. Noone seems to know.
I can't help but feel that the decreasing selection of product, and increasing (or stagnating) prices feels, um.....well....communistic. One of the other posters in this thread said it best, as far as how Wal-Mart probably really feels about its customers. We are grazing cows.
T & C. What is the code on the label that denotes the "one of's". My example: I shop at Walmart, used to ALWAYS find the Sam's Club/Choice brand 20 ounce water, every week. Now when I go, one week its there, next week its not. 3 weeks later it magically re-appears. There is never a price slot or even a space for it on the shelves, but then next time in the same spot BAM, its there. Puzzling.
I have asked the folks on the floor, and they say it's a special. But how is it special if it used to be there every week? Then other times I ask and I'm told it is sold out. Noone seems to know.
Walmart "generally" uses 3 different types of labels: GM (general merchandise, these are the yellow and white labels), Clearance (same as General merchandise but red and white), and Grocery labels (white and yellow with an orange square on the upper left).
There are also 3 main types of merchandise although there are a few exceptions (these are on the labels as well):
AD~ Assembly item. Sometimes these items take up to 3 weeks to come in but usually between 1-2 weeks after ordering.
WHSE~ Warehouse item. These items will arrive in 3 Days after ordering unless the warehouse is out.
GO~ These items are for the most part NOT ordered at store level and are the "one shot deals". Sometimes these are merely a bonus package, I.E. 12 extra loads of detergent, 1 bonus razor, etc. Sometimes they are seasonal, I.E. Christmas, Easter, Summer, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I stated above, if the PI (perpetual Inventory) of an item is Overstated (I.E. upon scanning the system shows you have 52 but in fact you have 7), the system will NOT order it because it thinks you already have plenty. It is usually the Dept. Managers duty to correct the PI if it indeed is deemed wrong. This, and warehouse outs are the main reasons items are out on the shelf.
If you are ever in a store and an item you want is out here is one thing you can do: find an associate with a Gemini or Telexon (handheld scanners) and ask them to scan a label under the Keep it Stocked screen. If BR show up it means they DO have it in the backroom... simply press alt and then F7 to find the location in the backroom. This only works if the merchandise is properly binned in the backroom and is not still sitting on a pallet or a cart.
I hope I answered your question but if not just let me know.
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