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You've pretty well hit the nail on the head. If it's not stocked it can't be sold. Many mistakes have been made. The backwards Super Walmart with the food section on the right side entry. Everything is out of whack in those stores especially clothing. You can't tell where one section of it ends and another begins now. In all of them though stocking and on hand inventory stinks. They count too heavily on their computerized inventory system. If the computer shows 10 items on the shelf then no more is ordered. I've ran into this before on items. You ask a clerk when they will get a specific item in? They check the computer and say there's 10 on the shelf. I always say please show me where. They look and even after not seeing it can not seem to get past that point as the person that handles that is off and will be in next Tuesday.

Their food section years ago started out great. Lots of bargains and name brand items. Then came the Great Value Fiasco. Anyone remember? They pulled most name brands and tried stocking only Great Value items. They never recovered to the previous inventory. Frozen foods? I like Stauffers frozen foods. It is almost always freezer burnt especially the Spaghetti. The can goods I pass by completely now. Their meats? Ingles, Food City, and Krogers, in my state can beat almost all of Walmarts prices, they will also empty and bag the groceries and offer to help me out.

Walmart ended Layaway. That hurt them also as well as hurt lower income families which used it to avoid credit. It ended when Wally World Credit showed up.

Outdoor power equipment? Never, ever, buy there. Read the article "The man who said no to Walmart". Electronics? It has become a Big Screen TV and Cell Phone accessory department. As stupid as it sounds my local Walmart has both a cell phone store and cell phones in Electronics. BTW their Pre-Paid phone cards sometimes work sometimes don't due to a delay in processing the card. I'm also sick and tired of Hide and Go Seek of products. This is done for the sole purpose of making you walk around the blasted store in hopes you see something else to buy also.

Walmart Corp needs to stop micromanaging the stores to death and listen to the store managers who hear the customers complaints. Years ago when Sam's son ran it if you called Walmart Customer service or wrote a letter someone at Corp called or replied. I have gotten a call from a VP of Loss Prevention before. Now they have local "associates" contacting customers and they have no power to address any issues. Walmart is it's own worst enemy. In a poor economy Walmart should be OK. But the fools in Bentonville just can't figure out what Sam Walton understood to make it a success.

Actually, the low inventory is probably deliberate. Home Depot does the same thing, and it’s one of the reasons why I avoid that place whenever I can as well: fewer different items for sale and empty shelves.

Low inventory is one of those business school shibboleths all good MBA bean counters learn, namely the concept of “velocity”, that is, how long goods sit on the shelves incurring inventory “costs”. You can improve “velocity” by turning good over quickly, OR you can improve it by not putting goods on the shelf in the first place. Guess which one is easiest to pull off? Yep, no goods on shelves. Of course, no goods equals no sales, but that doesn’t matter to bean counters, just so long as they get that “velocity” number improved. So what if customers give up in disgust shopping in your empty-shelf store. After all, if they can reduce “velocity”, the company MUST be doing good, right?