
Documents reveal that Whole Foods is leaving some shelves empty on purpose - cepth
http://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-internal-documents-on-empty-shelves-2018-1
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userbinator
Personally, I'd prefer to see empty places where a product is sold out, than
have to spend extra time coming to that conclusion by examining everything
else nearby.

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saas_co_de
I have never seen an empty shelf in any major brand store. The idea is insane.
Especially for a store targeting an upmarket clientele with high prices.

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AmVess
It gives the store a scruffy, downmarket image. Also, it removes convenience.
If I cannot get all the items on my list at a single store, then I will
immediately stop going to that store...likely to never return.

Companies have been trying to reinvent the grocery store for decades now. What
can be done has already been done, and now they are trying to alter the way
their customers shop. Guess what! That doesn't work.

This experiment will end badly for WF.

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ghshephard
" If I cannot get all the items on my list at a single store, then I will
immediately stop going to that store."

You've got it completely backwards - this new policy is _designed_ for you -
the goal is to ensure they always keep product in stock, and the "holes" are a
forcing function. Previously WF would just put something else in place,
thereby reducing the pressure to restock. Now, the goal is to quickly as
possible, ensure they have everything available.

~~~
AmVess
No, it's completely not designed for me. My local supermarket has kept the
same items in the same places for 5+ years. They keep things in stock by going
to the store room and filling shelves up when they get low. Just In Time
Delivery works when you are building cars, but it falls flat on its face in a
grocery store. If I see an empty shelf, I assume the business isn't being run
properly. If I can't get all my shopping done in one place, I go to a store
that gives me that option.

Trying to get consumers to change their grocery shopping habits never works.

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sk5t
The headline hints--to this non-industry reader--at a dark ulterior motive,
like perhaps driving customer behavior by suggesting scarcity. But I would
welcome a policy that leaves the cilantro shelf space empty rather than fill
it with parsley.

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chisleu
If it isn't available, that is scarcity.

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sk5t
I was thinking more along the lines of a subconscious effect: "Hmm, an empty
space at Whole Foods, that's a bit odd. Is a hurricane coming? Maybe I'd
better get more canned goods/potatoes/coffee."

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mindcrime
If you live by just-in-time-inventory, you will die by just-in-time-inventory.

It's one of those things that sounds good on paper, and _can_ work, but it's
_damn_ hard to get right in real-life. The JIT model assumes you have the
necessary data and models to predict when things need to be ordered, how long
they'll take to be shipped out by the supplier, how long they'll take to
arrive, etc. In reality, there are a LOT of variables that you can't (or at
least "didn't") account for in your model.

It probably makes sense to start the system running with the parameters
configured to allow a little more back stock in order to avoid outages, and
slowly tweak it to get closer and closer to "pure" JIT. And even then, you
need a way to account for abnormal circumstances like a snow-storm in Florida,
or other "that just doesn't happen" scenarios.

Probably Whole Foods will eventually get their system tuned well enough to
avoid the major problems, but it does take time to get it right.

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batbomb
That's not what this is about at all. It's about making sure things that are
out _are_ reordered and moving, and punishing stores that have historically
made things look "presentable" by hiding the fact they are out of things and
playing around with shelf space, thinking they know better than the people who
set the shelves/corporate on what items actually sell. When you have people
that monkey around with things like that, it defeats any work that analysts do
to optimize ordering and sales.

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mindcrime
_That 's not what this is about at all. It's about making sure things that are
out are reordered and moving_

Those things aren't an issue if you avoid outages to begin with. And while
this specific link may have been referring more specifically to the re-facing
issue, there is a broader story in play here, including another, different
article about Whole Foods, which is more about their general ability to keep
items in stock. I'm addressing the broader issue in my post above.

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batbomb
This policy, especially combined with a policy of keeping low backstock, is
actually the best way to make sure you keep items on the shelf and moving.

It means that it's easy to find stuff in the back room if you are out on the
shelf, it's easy to tae inventory and have accurate stock counts (and fix if
you are off), and it's easy to make sure you don't end up with some idiot
facing the aisles obscuring that you are out of stuff on the shelf when you
have some in the back room (and reducing sales). Relatedly, it's a good way of
making sure you order the right amount of things that sale and the right
amount of things that don't sell.

It's how you should run a grocery store. Most grocery stores get in new
grocery loads 3-4 times a week, so there's not a real need to keep a lot of
backstock (especially if your shelf space is allocated properly).

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thisisit
If I am reading this correctly - the idea is to ensure both employees and
customers are aware something is out of stock items. Previously, OOS shelves
were filled with another "high" selling item.

This sounds like a great and useful idea. Instead of confusing customers with
another "high" selling item, it is better to have the shelf empty.

Though I am unsure of the policy on "temporary OOS" tags - Why not have it
there?

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berbec
The previous article [?] mentions this coincided with a reduction on back
stockroom space.

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ams6110
Kroger seems to follow the same playbook from what I can see. Locally, they
are often sold out of common produce such as lettuce. Even dry and canned
goods are a crap shot. The other night I was looking for canned white beans
and the entire shelf section was empty. It's frustrating. They are basically
the only grocery option in the area and they do enough business to carry a
little extra inventory. As it is now, if I happen to be in an area with
another option I'll shop there. This is costing them some amount of business.

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dawnerd
I have noticed they’ve been pretty bad about keeping certain things in stock.
Their soda isle is probably the worst, almost always picked clean.

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sjg007
It seems strange not to have a back stock of soda.. that stuff never spoils.
Maybe it’s a space issue. Same with dry or canned goods. Produce should be
cheap enough at wholesale to have some spoilage and they also have these
seconds supermarkets that take not quite perfect fresh food and close to
expiration date foods. I’d open another store selling those.

~~~
dawnerd
Problem is the stores here at least don’t seem to restock unless you ask -
instead waiting for the coke/Pepsi person to do it.

What’s interesting is the increased bottle fee doesn’t seem to have affected
sales.

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tristanj
Reminds me of Soviet Russia. Bad central planning + strict bureaucratic rules
& penalties causes empty store shelves.

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Muromec
Central planning was dictating how much of every item to produce and where to
distribute it and what price it would be sold for. For whole country for 5
years. This is exactly opposite of OTS.

ref:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosplan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosplan)

~~~
nraynaud
Just not any country, the biggest on the planet, it’s even harder.

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qubex
(Beware of irksome Business Insider adblocker-blocking nag-box.)

As another reader has remarked, “the title hints at some ulterior dark motive”
or somesuch, and implies that consumers should be alarmed and horrified by
this change of practice. I fail to see how plugging a hole with something else
actually makes any shopper’s life better: it doesn’t resolve the scarcity and
it induces shoppers to buy things they didn’t intend.

So why the implied scandal?

(Note: I’ve been to Whole Foods perhaps five or ten times in the past decade,
because I don’t live in the U.S.)

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bri3d
Stock/inventory management seems like a great, although tough application for
computer vision. A decent way to estimate how much broccoli is left without
human intervention would facilitate automated ordering and eliminate rules
like this one.

The title of the article is also misleading - they're not halting restocking
of goods, they've just instructed employees not to patch over gaps with other
products.

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zitterbewegung
On the other hand if you were creating test data for a computer vision system
you might want to have a bunch of examples where there is no product on the
shelves. Possibly because this is an anomaly or doesn't happen. Therefore,
they force it to happen.

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SN76477
This is what happens when you mix data with people.

From what I can see you have top down management that wants to use data to
make decisions. Those decisions affect people, the customers.

What few big data companies understand is that you cannot always approach
things like this.

It does look sloppy, and it looks stupid. As a consumer I would go somewhere
else.

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really-dinosaur
I completely disagree. I've worked in supermarkets, and facing-across products
seemed like the most asinine thing in the world.

If a product is out of stock, then the most immediate way to show that is by
having an empty shelf.

Instead companies like Walmart prefer to face across products, and cover up
barcodes. You would spend a good 10 minutes looking for something very
specific, only to have an employee point at something similar, with an
obscured SEL (shelf edge label) and say 'if we had them, they would be here'.

There was a big trend when I worked for Walmart to focus on stats like 'Basket
Spend', and comparing regional scores. It felt like all the worst examples of
AB testing.

There was quite a humorous one where 'key lines' were checked by visitors, so
to counteract this, we kept spares of those lines in the back to put out when
they visited, later taking them off and putting them back in the warehouse.
The end result was these lines never dipped under the restock threshold and
were always out of stock... except when they visited.

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natch
I like the policy because it reminds the store management and employees of the
importance of getting some whatever (onions, etc.) reordered ASAP. And it
doesn't paper over the problem. Also in a move that is only partly evil, it
helps enlist customers in reminding employees to do their jobs. Which yes the
customers would do anyway, but in this system they do it earlier. And with
more standing, because pointing to an empty dedicated space is more compelling
than wondering out loud to the produce worker whether the store even carries
jicama or whatever the product is.

That being said, I have almost never seen empty shelves at any Whole Foods
store. And I go to several of them pretty regularly. Maybe my local ones are
just well managed. Or maybe they have an easier time in California since some
produce can be sourced locally.

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bitL
Is this based on yet another neuroscience "research" we get to "enjoy" at
supermarkets world-wide? "In Soviet something" instantly comes to mind...

Let's emulate shortages, despite queueing solved since 60s and likely
warehouse full of necessary stuff nearby. 1st world in the need to emulate 2nd
world.

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ShabbosGoy
Except you aren’t forced to shop at Whole Foods. Even Vons/Albertsons/Safeway
is better these days.

~~~
bitL
Did this start since WF was acquired or even earlier? When in USA I always
went to WF for quality food (you could even buy non-sweet bread there!) and my
last US visit I noticed their prices were really up, but didn't notice any
other changes.

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quadrangle
[https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/dont-judge-
supermarket...](https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/dont-judge-supermarket-
empty-shelves-it-might-be-fighting-food-waste.html)

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Matt3o12_
Related:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16189432](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16189432)

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jtbayly
This link redirects me on my iPhone to a spam advertisement saying that I
“won”.

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uniacid
Funny how walmart (neighborhood stores) never seems to have this problem? at
least that's what I see locally.. it's always stocked for the most part unless
say we have a Hurricane coming our way!

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quadrangle
this isn't a problem that stores have or not, it's just a corporate policy:
when a product sells out, do you fill the shelf with _something_ or leave it
empty?

People have different opinions on the pros and cons here. But it's not like
Walmart always has every single product in stock 100% of the time, that would
be super unlikely. If you never see empty shelves, then they just are using
the "put something on the shelf" policy instead of the "leave it empty"
policy.

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PeterisP
It is a problem that stores have or not - some stores have situations where
bananas or lettuce are sold out only in exceptional cases i.e. basically
never, while others have to decide on a corporate policy on what to do because
that's a common occurrence.

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quadrangle
The only way to _never_ sell out of bananas is to order enough that a portion
always goes bad before selling. No matter how much sales you do, there's an
inherent trade-off between the amount waste and amount of temporary sell-outs.
That is a problem all stores have to deal with, and they have to choose _some_
policy for it.

Similarly, stores have a policy about what to do when there is a sell-out
(leave the shelf empty or put something else there).

Each policy decision has pros and cons, and no store is immune to these
issues.

