Exploring Shopper Reactions to Grocery Stockouts

ABSTRACT Retailers continue to struggle to improve product on-shelf availability (OSA). Stockouts generate significant profitability and reputation effects. This research utilizes an online survey of 1,399 U.S. adults self-reporting their reaction to a stockout of a grocery item they regularly buy. Findings indicate that perceptions of private label purchase riskiness were related to switching stores in response to stockouts. When confronted with a stockout, shoppers who patronized multiple stores each week and those manifesting short-term orientations were more likely to switch stores than buy a substitute. The switch-stores reaction was linked to three demographic attributes: race, households with children, and gender. Nonwhites were more likely to switch stores than purchase a substitute and women and households with children were less likely to switch stores than purchase a substitute. This research concludes with a discussion of options that food retailers could deploy tactics to help reduce the harmful effects of stockouts.