Grocery stores have been a bright spot in this otherwise dark time of global pandemic. Store workers are braving an on-edge public and risking infection to stock shelves or come out to our homes to deliver groceries. I appreciate and thank them for all their hard work.
So it’s not on the front lines where grocery stores have an issue right now. Instead, it’s on the back end, in the way big grocery retailers manage and communicate about e-commerce orders, where the problems seem to be happening.
Like millions of others, my family has been self-isolating for a couple of weeks, which means more grocery shopping online. I’ve used Safeway for delivery and Walmart for curbside pickup. Both have problems with the way they relay information about out-of-stock items.
Before going off on too much of a rant, I should note that I’m extremely lucky. My wife and I are still employed, we are sufficiently stocked with food, and if need be, we can easily and safely go to an actual grocery store. But there are a lot of people in worse off situations, and those people need a consistent and reliable method for ordering groceries from home.
I also understand that we are in unprecedented times, and as such, people are stocking up/hoarding, so some items are just aren’t available. I have yet to find toilet paper anywhere online, and evidently everyone is baking loaves of sourdough, so there’s a run on flour.
The problems I’ve encountered with Safeway and Walmart is that those platforms accept and process my online order, leading me to believe all items are in stock and that I’ll get everything I need/want. Then, literally a couple hours before the scheduled pickup or delivery time, I get notifications telling me some items are out of stock and I won’t receive them.
In the case of the Safeway, it was a delivery order that had been placed a week and half prior. So during that time, I assumed my entire order would arrive and didn’t make any other plans to get groceries. Thankfully, the only things the store was out of were flour and yeast (to make bread, he admitted, sheepishly), and not more necessary staples like eggs or milk. But there was a gap of a week and a half in between the time I placed the order and the delivery date. At some point in there, Safeway should have communicated that items are out of stock so I could figure something else out.
The same thing happened with Walmart when I ordered food for curbside pickup. The system accepted my order the day before, leading me to believe everything was a-okay! Then the next day, shortly before I drove to the store for pickup I got an email from Walmart that basically said, “Just kidding! We’re out of a bunch of stuff you ordered.” Some of the items, like toilet paper, I kinda figured might disappear, but there were also things like fruits and vegetables in there that suddenly couldn’t be fulfilled. This was more baffling because Walmart is a logistics and supply chain monster. Why, then, was the online ordering so far off from reality in the 24-hour period between when I placed my order and when I picked it up?
Again, the reason for this whole rant is that as we are told to shelter in place and avoid crowds (especially if you’re older), e-commerce will become increasingly important, depending on how long this outbreak lasts. It’s critical that people can feel confident in the online orders they place. I’m fortunate in that I have the time and means to compensate if something goes awry. But there are lots of people who don’t, and lots of people who can’t go into the store because they have young kids, or are sick who will rely on online grocery shopping. If it’s too difficult to align store inventory with demand at a store, then retailers should improve and clarify messaging around orders so that people understand that what they receive may change, and if it does, give them ample time to either prepare for the outage or make substitutions.
For the most part, online grocery shopping is great! And I really do appreciate all the work Walmart and Safeway are putting in quickly to make it happen. We just need to make some changes to make sure we aren’t worse off in these worst of times.
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I think you’re imposing an unfair burden on Walmart. They’re not amazon, who own the whole warehouse and can completely control what goes out their doors. Instead, they send pickers into aisles thatwalk in customers can access. They may know that a particular item is out of stock, but they may not know that a retail shopper just bought the last six and hasn’t checked out yet.
I understand that there is a lot that goes into inventory management. The problem is around communication and expectations. Getting a notification as you’re heading out the door to the store to pick up items is insufficient.
I am 71 years old and I live alone. I do not drive so I rely heavily on delivery services. Safeway DEFINITELY has a significant problem with their inability to identify out-of-stock items. I have placed a LOT of orders with Safeway and this is a problem with virtually EVERY SINGLE order… they have supposedly been out of items like milk, eggs,and other staples and this was waaaayyyyyyy before Covid-19. Perhaps they should waive delivery fees or at the very least make an adjustment. I placed an order including multiple frozen dinners…several different varieties…and I did not get a single one. I do not have the ability to hop in my car and drive to another store to find the items Safeway doesn’t have. Let me repeat…this is not just an OCCASIONAL problem…it happens all the time. Why am I paying for delivery??? Safeway is a HUGE chain and their prices are not cheap. Sandy
I work as a shopper. Let’s say you place your order Wednesday evening for a Friday morning pickup. We don’t pick your order until early Friday morning (I start at 5am). So in between Wed eve and early Friday, stock has gone out and come in. You don’t get the notification until we have picked YOUR order.
It’s frustrating to us to have o many substitutions and missing items!
Hi Dee,
Thanks for your comment! I want to reinforce that I don’t think this is an issue with the workers. I appreciate all that you’re doing. Seems the bigger issue is that in a time of dramatic surge – and the most need – the system breaks down.
Unfortunately you don’t understand how these systems work. The items you select are in stock when you place the order. However, the items are not actually picked up off the shelf until the day the delivery is scheduled. There is no way for the store to know what will be in stock on that day/time in the future. It’s physically impossible. This is why you have the ability to select specific replacements or choose no replacement at all. It’s a limitation of the physical reality.
Seems like there should be a way to alert me more than a few hours in advance. If I place an order with a delivery date more than a week away, I should get some kind of notification more than an hour before it’s supposed to arrive.
I also work as a shopper. You do not receive a notification sooner because nobody has shopped your order yet. You receive a notification as soon as the person is finished shopping your order and is processed. In order for you to be notified a day before means that someone would have to shop for your order a day before your scheduled pick up time. But we have limited space for that and we do not want to pick orders and have them sitting around since we want to give you the freshest items especially when it comes to produce and meat.