My wife has been with Walmart for over 15 years now. Their issue is not getting merchandise. It is instead getting it on the shelves. They have had to cut their floor and backroom associates so much to show a profit that they do not have enough people to keep the shelves filled. The backrooms are loaded and just about every Walmart has trailers out back filled with merchandise. More merchandise than they can work.
I’ve been thinking it is deliberate.
The Walmart Supercenter I shop at keeps a thin inventory on the shelves which makes it necessary for me to keep a “safety stock” of items at home. Rather than chance finding what I usually buy being not available on a given shopping day, I keep a two or three week supply on my cabinet shelves. It’s smart of them to do that.
However, the risk they run, and what has led me to get my OTC pharma on a subscription basis (for less money, too) from Amazon.com, is that people may switch to more reliable suppliers over time.
Both points acknowledged.
Persistent holes of same product for months is not attributable to those.