North America, 1996
North America Council, 1996: In 1996, a few numbers told the story: a shopper in the average supermarket would find 8.2% of items out-of-stock on a typical afternoon. Out-of-stock levels rose to 11% on Sunday, the second busiest shopping day of the week. Performance was even worse on advertised items – 15%. The existence, magnitude and pervasiveness of the out-of-stock problem were undeniable in 1996. So was its impact: consumers refused to buy an alternative 34% of the time. They postponed purchases, sometimes forever, or took their business elsewhere. Retailers needed to accept their own significant responsibility for the problem. Not to mince words, retailer failure to order products from the warehouse and fill shelves with inventory already sitting in the store caused the vast majority of all out-of-stocks. The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council commissioned this study to quantify the problem and explore possible solutions.