There’s a joke news story in the latest issue of Private Eye, revolving around the forthcoming Toy Story 3 film. Toy stores are already hard at work making sure they don’t have enough of this year’s must have Buzz Lightyear doll in time for Christmas, it reports. A spokesman is quoted as saying: “It’s a huge operation but we are confident that by December we will be properly understocked.”

First up, I laughed. Secondly, however, I got to thinking that it speaks volumes about where the general public stands when it comes to out-of-stocks. Retailers continue to lose sales due to inventory stock outs or inventory that is on site but not made available for sale. They have been struggling with this problem for decades, with little success, despite the myriad of technology solutions now on offer. My local Tesco Express is one such offender. I can’t remember the last time I went in there and actually managed to get everything on my shopping list - empty shelves are a regular occurrence.

In the past, it was perhaps assumed that customers accepted low levels of customer service. But that’s no longer the case in this brave new world of multi-channel retailing. If a retailer is doing something wrong, they won’t think twice about switching to a competitor. The in-store issue of a customer not being able to find an item can be easily solved with good signage, customer service etc. The out-of-stock issue, on the other hand, is more complicated. It’s such an inexact science that retailers are never going to get it 100 per cent right. But when a company like Tesco has stores littered with empty shelves, something is badly wrong. There are systems and solutions available that help retailers more accurately predict demand etc. So why does this issue continue to be the stuff of spoof articles in Private Eye?