I work (transitively) for a very large grocery retailer that rhymes with "Broger". Live inventory data is mostly junk -- it's sorta reliable in broad strokes, but you can't rely on it for determining out of stock events. There'd be all sorts of false positives and false negatives.
Like 20 years ago I worked at a grocery store when they were introducing "live inventory". Goods got scanned when unloaded from truck, and of course the register.
One day a customer complained we had no more washing powder of the most popular brand. Boss came, said they just got some the previous day, checked the inventory system and saw there should be three "trays" left, each with 12x packs of 1.2kg. He went to check the back, nothing there.
After a bit more searching he had a hunch, and checked the cameras. Sure enough, someone had loaded the three trays into a duffel bag earlier that morning and walked right out.
So yeah, even with all the normal human elements in the logistical chain, kinda hard to keep track of blatant theft.
As someone who has had to clean and analyze inventory data, I can't agree with you enough.
In every company I've worked or consulted for, inventory reconciliation is always an ongoing headache for every business with a retail component. It is unbelievable how much waste and loss comes about from this.
Are their any companies achieving some level of automation? I would be very interested in learning more.
