Whole Foods has suffered a food shortage ever since the summer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) acquisition.
The shortage has caused a lot of employees to become frustrated, while customers have been upset about the empty shelves in Whole Foods locations. Shoppers believe the blame lies in Amazon, which has failed to keep up with increasing foot traffic in its stores since the $13.7 billion purchase.
However, some employees believe that these issues began before the acquisition. They say that these shortages have been around since Whole Foods implemented a buying system called order-to-shelf that the company has had since early last year.
The system — also known as OTS — consists of a way to streamline and track product purchases, displays, storage and sales. OTS has caused a lot of employees to move past stock rooms and bring products directly from delivery trucks to Whole Foods shelves.
The move was designed to reduce costs, improve inventory managing, reduce waste and clear out storage. However, it appears as if keeping more items in stock would’ve been smart as it would’ve appeased customers and workers alike when these food shortages hit.
The system has strict procedures that have caused stocking issues, several employees said. They added that the displeasure from customers have crushed worker morale at Whole Foods.
AMZN stock is up more than 0.3% on Thursday.
