You misunderstood me.
The fact that - as I said - the stuff is all done automatically, does not preclude the situation where the website may not reflect reality in the store. You seem to have made a false leap from my saying stock control is done automatically to the idea that I was somehow denying your experience. I wasn’t. I don’t know how you reached that conclusion.
Especially as I cited my own experience of one such situation!
And commented on the fact that the automatic systems do go wrong.
My point remains - nobody manually updates any retailer’s website with stock details as a matter of course; it largely only happens to deal with unforeseen exceptions. Central stock management systems update their databases as stock is ordered, received, distributed and sold. Website details re stock availability are derived from these databases via automated data feeds.
(I could relay an only semi-apocryphal story about how Sam Walton managed to dispense with many of Walmart’s stock reordering staff maybe 30 or so years ago, by investing in such a database engine and then allowing the likes of Proctor & Gamble et al to access it, with some heavy - but very astute - quid pro quo. I heard the story first hand from a guy who worked for the firm that sold him the database engine.)
The processes involved in automatic stock tracking (ordering, receiving, distribution and monitoring as it ultimately leaves the store) are ripe with opportunities for error (as my own anecdote illustrated). And some companies are much better than others at designing their processes to account for this, and enable corrections to be made - manually. And store staff not replenishing shelves fast enough after deliveries of more stock are made is a common problem in times of cheap employers, minimum wage staff and not enough of them.
So now, I hope we are good.
Also, fun fact. Many people (especially MBA types doing case studies) seem to sometimes think that in the UK Sainsbury’s were among the first of the supermarkets to install barcode scanning at tills in order to reduce till queue times. Wrong. The business case was entirely predicated on being better able to manage stock control throughout the internal supply chain, from delivery to sales. The reduction in till queueing times resulting from barcodes being scanned rather than checkout staff having to laboriously type in prices and codes was an entirely serendipitous side-effect.
