You would think so but perpetual inventory is very rare, even for the large chains. Grocery stores get less than half their assortment from their own warehouse

You would think so but perpetual inventory is very rare, even for the large chains. Grocery stores get less than half their assortment from their own warehouses, with the majority delivered direct to store from hundreds of vendors. The large chains have some integration with their largest vendors like Coca Cola and Frito Lay, but usually this is just for item authorization and invoicing, not for perpetual inventory. Spoiled and damaged product is often thrown away without recording it. Cashiers scan 12 units of one UPC instead of scanning each flavor of baby food or Gatorade separately. Scanning accuracy is even worse with self-checkout. Reordering is typically done by looking for empty spaces on the shelf, since they don't have the perpetual inventory to do automated replenishment. It's a real shitshow from a data quality standpoint, which is why the no-fill rate is so high with online orders. > it's a forced win for someone with an integrated warehouse Webvan thought so too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan