A shopper follows the app to the normal shelf location, sees an empty space, and reasonably concludes the item is sold out. Then the product turns out to be sitting on a promotional display somewhere else in the store. That disconnect is more than a minor annoyance when a gig shopper is racing a clock and making substitution decisions for someone else.
We want to find out how Walmart manages temporary and promotional displays in its inventory and location systems. When stock is moved to an endcap, seasonal island or special sale display, is the normal shelf intentionally left empty? Does the digital location update? Do employees have a second-location reference that DoorDash shoppers never see?
The larger question is whether store inventory systems still assume that the person searching has time to wander or ask an employee. Gig shopping exposes weaknesses that ordinary customers may tolerate because every extra search has a direct cost in time.
We want examples from shoppers and store workers, especially cases where the app said an item was available but its normal shelf location suggested the opposite.
