I have noticed a trend where an order comes through, we don't have it, and we check the on hand counts. On more than one occasion there is really high quantity (say, 10 of the same Kenmore canister vacs) yet there are none to be found.
We have 72 hours to report RRC shortages but the catch is that we will never notice the shortage until well after, usually by getting a web order or when inventory rolls around.
Shoplifting is a problem in our store, which lacks onsite AP, but I'm betting that shortages caused by shoplifting is just a part of a bigger problem. I cannot believe that all of these incorrect on hand counts are due to shoplifting, especially large merchandise, like microwaves, tool boxes, table saws and other items that we would notice walking out of the door and are not concealable, like clothes, small tools and so on. I think the RRC is not being thorough (or possibly dishonest? Who knows?) when they are preparing and loading shipments onto the trailers.
One of the other reasons why I believe the RRC is shorting the stores of the merchandise is because we pay attention to the labels to look out for customer goods, and by doing that, we have noticed that we are receiving countless customer pickup merchandise intended to be delivered to stores that are located hundreds or even thousands of miles away. I just wonder how much merchandise we received that was intended for another store's inventory or merchandise we were supposed to receive for our inventory that we never did, because it went to a different store?
Either way, it's killing web order metrics and it is definitely not helping shrink control. As much as I'd hate to do this because of how much time it would consume, maybe we should start scanning every single item to verify that we received it like we do with DDC shipments?