Does the Wal-mart warehouse actually force out produce food items to stores that do not need it?

Question

I wanted to know because we get a lot of throwaways and my manger is always over ordering things. And sometimes I get the old well the warehouse is sending us the force outs.

Answer 1

You would be doing a great service if you would point this out to the upper management. Walmart is a leader in cutting waster, and thus lowering costs. You're manager might like the idea as well.  

Answer 2

Actually, this is true. I really sucks, but it is fairly common place, and not just WalMart

The reason this happens is the warehouse/buyers place orders based on anticipated needs for all the stores they service.  Sometimes they have buy ins that cause a little larger than normal orders on the whole sale level.

On the other hand, sometimes the customers don't happen to want to buy as much what the warehouse has (maybe its a not so pretty batch, or the price is just average compared to the competition, etc) so the stores may not order as much as the wholesale buyers anticipated.  The *only* outlet for a warehouse to relieve themselves of excess perishable goods is to force it to the stores it serves.  At least the stores may be able to put it on as a "manager's special" and get some $$ for it versus $0 for it.

It is a fact of business when dealing with perishable goods.  If it were canned green beans, it wouldn't  be a big deal to slowly let them work themselves out on an as need basis.