I asked a similar question of someone who worked on these systems at Instacart, and the answer was that story inventory is often innacurate or incomplete. The stores just haven't needed the degree of accuracy before.
There's also a fun integration problem: food manufacturers essentially lease shelf space and then the manufacturer handles all the inventory/restocking, and the store itself doesn't know or care what's there. So now you have to contact a bunch of third parties to learn what's in the store.
There's also a fun integration problem: food manufacturers essentially lease shelf space and then the manufacturer handles all the inventory/restocking, and the store itself doesn't know or care what's there. So now you have to contact a bunch of third parties to learn what's in the store.