Fake Food Covers Empty Grocery Store Shelves to Hide Shortages

Stores are doing their best not to draw customers’ attention to the fact that shelves are much emptier than they usually are. Some stores are filling shelves with large, out of season items like camping chairs, or “decoys” of real products. One store went so far as to cover the shelves with a sheet that had a photo of fully stocked shelves printed on it. Shopping expert Phil Lempert says that there’s a method to the deception, as empty shelves can spark panic and cause people to start hoarding.

[arlynnm]

“They don’t want to scare consumers at all” Okay because a bunch of random giant bottles aren’t scary. Totally normal.

[StarTropicsKing]

Worked at Target for years. This is not a new tactic at all. We called it “flexing”. Basically, they never wanted to see empties. Ever. It’s just never been this severe. Glad I got out when I did.

[jimb.]

*Won't the fake pictures just annoy people that think the shelves actually have the product(s) they're looking for?*

[nspring]

"moving cartons of milk to the front of the shelf to make it seem full"

Ummm that's called front facing and every store has done that throughout history.

[GirliePop_Z]

Grocery stores: "We don't want to cause panic."
Inside Edition: *Causes panic*

[michelleaguirre]

They "don't want to scare customers." They "don't want people hoarding."
Scares people into hoarding by reporting on it 😂

[alexanderb]

“This drink fridge sure looks full!”

*shows an obviously fake and printed picture of a “stocked” refrigerator taped to the inside*

[LemonCrush]

Did they just say that “fronting” items, like milk, was a ploy??? I was a stocker in 2003 and we did this as a routine task to make the shelves look neater! 🤦🏽‍♂️

[nathanjamesbaker]

Customer: "On which aisle can I find Coke bottle piggy banks?"

Store employee: "Yes."

[loganleblanc]

“They don’t want to scare customers”

Inside edition- don’t worry we got that

[abe]

I think media should not sensationalize this issue... It only causes panic buying and makes the situation even worse.

[AegisAuras]

I think the giant printouts of food scare me more than the empty shelves.

[TearYouApart]

I worked in a grocery store for 2 years I can attest to having to spread out merchandise to give the illusion of packed shelves. This is quite common even before the pandemic.

[arielm]

As a retail worker, I get told "well maybe you should be ordering more!" At least 15 times a day. People have been pretty terrible lately.

[GooblyWoobly]

Moving the milk to the front isn’t them trying to hide anything. That’s just how to stock shelves

[CHAOS_E]

This isn’t new. It’s called zoning in Walmart. Just pushing everything to the front. We’ve had some instances where we have had shortages so we just spread out the products to make the shelves full.

[CarlosG]

“So we’re gonna expose them so that everyone watching can go panic buy asap!” Lol

[khrp]

Spreading merchandise out and bringing it to the front of shelves isn't new. This was common practice way before the pandemic.

[shuichisaihope]

"Moving milk to the front to make it look full" what thats a normal retail practice

[iciikyp]

It’s called “facing”. Putting stuff at the front of the shelf. Just makes everything look nice and organized