Walmart has cut so many employees in recent years that it no longer has enough staff to stock shelves, work at check-out, or perform other basic functions, according to reports by Bloomberg and the New York Times.  As a result, shelves are empty, out-of-stocks are more frequent, produce in the grocery department isn’t fresh, and lines are long at check-outs, according to the reports.

Bloomberg kicked things off with an analysis in March and a follow-up this month based on analysis from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Colin McGranahan, which noted that Walmart’s workforce fell by 120,000 between 2008 and January 31st of this year, during a period in which it added about 455 Walmart stores.  The company currently has around 1.3 million workers for its 4005 stores.  As a result, workers are “being asked to do more than they can accomplish in a shift,” McGranahan said.

Walmart responded to the Bloomberg story by saying its surveys show that customers have positive shopping experiences and numbers are trending upwards.  In a follow-up, Bloomberg asked readers to e-mail in their own experiences with Walmart and received over 1000 complaints about problems related to low staffing and describing how shoppers were changing their shopping patterns as a result.

Not to be outdone, the New York Times did a report this month on Walmart’s food operations, which quoted internal notes from a March top management meeting that discussed stocking problems.  One quote told the story.  "Don’t have items they are looking for--can’t find it," it said.  As with Bloomberg, Walmart also told the Times that in-stocks were high and in-store metrics were moving upward.

In geek culture categories, Walmart is an important retailer in toys, games, and home video, and does stock a limited number of graphic novel titles.  Weakness in availability hampers the most aggressive brick and mortar competitor for independent retailers in those categories.

With the Walmart stocking and service problems and indie stores in a position to narrow the price differences with Amazon (if Amazon continuing to increase the number of places it charges sales tax, see "Amazon May Finally Have to Charge Tax Everywhere"), independent retailers may be seeing the first positive signs in a decade of tough competition against the largest brick and mortar and online retailers.