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Bonzi777 t1_ja8b1l8 wrote

Some does go bad, but it’s actually a very small amount. Mid single digits for perishable, a fraction of that for shelf-stable. There’s not as much product on shelves as you think, relative to the number of people buying it. So you might see only a couple of people buying a particular product in the store while you’re there, but that’s happening constantly throughout the week.

One thing to know, is that in most stores there’s not product “in the back”. What you see on the shelf is what they have until the next truck comes, so they have to keep it stocked. That’s also why when everyone in a 2 mile radius decides they need toilet paper at the same time, it runs out in a hurry.

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mdchaney t1_ja8emzg wrote

I have to explain to people all the time there is no "in the back" for the most part. The fresh areas (dairy, meat, produce, bakery, deli) *might* have something out of customer sight that hasn't been shelved yet, but if they're out of a can of soup you'll have to wait until a truck brings another. People imagine that a grocery store has some huge stock room in the back that they use to replenish the shelves, but that's just not the case. If an item is on sale they might keep some extras around, but other than that what you see is what you get.

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Bonzi777 t1_ja8iwa9 wrote

Yeah, I’ve worked in the grocery business for 20+ years doing everything from stocking shelves to building planograms to sales analysis. If I’ve ever seen a store with stuff in the back it was sitting on a pallet waiting to be stocked and nobody was going to be able to locate it until that happened.

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Silver-Ad8136 t1_jabt0jv wrote

Some people sure have some strange ideas about how businesses do business. I worked at a Corningware store, and while we did have a fair bit of merch in the back, it was the same stuff we had up front, not like...super secret extra good stuff we kept hidden because...idk? We hate money?

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