How Often Products Go Out of Stock at U.S. Retailers
StoreLocators’ study of how often products go out of stock at U.S. retail stores, how long they stay out and whether a nearby store has them. Every number comes from availability as reported by retailers’ own websites for specific stores, for products from 102 consumer brands that use StoreLocators.
4,579
products
102
brands
108,249
stores
68
retail chains
Availability as reported by each retailer’s website for a specific store, recorded daily at most chains, June 21 to September 18, 2026.
3.5%
3.5% of products in stock at a U.S. retail store on a given day are reported unavailable at that store 7 days later
95% range 3.1–4.1% · n = 189,444,834 product-store days across 100 brands.
Retailers whose website reports store stock rather than pickup eligibility: 3.5%. Median brand: 3.5%.
How often do products go out of stock?
Of products reported in stock at a store today, 0.9% are reported unavailable the next day, 3.5% a week later and 6.5% thirty days later.
n = 189,444,834 product-store days across 100 brands. In-stock product-store days observed again on the later day.
The 30-day share leaves out chains where an item long out of stock gets fewer readings, because the share there would be understated.
If a store is out, does a nearby store have it?
When a store is out of a product that another store of the same chain has that day, the nearest one with it is within 5 miles 38% of the time, within 10 miles 58% and within 25 miles 77%.
n = 413,728 product-store days across 101 brands. A 2% sample of out-of-stock product-store days where the product was available at another store of the chain that day.
Do a few products and stores account for most out-of-stocks?
Within a chain, the 10% of a brand's products with the most out-of-stock days account for 37% of them, and the 10% of stores with the most account for 27%.
n = 44 brand-and-chain combinations across 102 brands. Median across brand-and-chain combinations with at least 20 products and 1,000 out-of-stock product-store days.
Chains where an item long out of stock gets fewer readings are left out, because they undercount out-of-stock days.
How long do products stay out of stock?
Once a product is reported out at a store, 21% are reported back within a day, 59% within a week and 81% within 30 days; 19% were still out after 30 days.
7 days
typical time out of stock (median)
95% range 3–7 days
n = 1,671,317 out-of-stock spells across 97 brands. Chains with a daily reading regardless of the last one; each share counts only spells that had that many days to come back.
At Walmart, an item already reported out of stock gets a new reading every few days rather than daily, so Walmart is left out of this finding and reported on its own page.
Out-of-stock rates by product category
Across 9 categories, the share reported unavailable a week later ranges from 2.7% to 6.9%.
n = 162,851,172 product-store days across 102 brands. 9 categories with at least 5 brands each.
Each category below has at least 5 brands, so no single brand can be picked out.
Packaged food
6.9% of packaged food products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 4.7–9.6%), over 5,729,935 product-store days from 16 brands.
54%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 42–65%
70%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 61–80%
96,680 spells
n = 5,729,935 product-store days across 16 brands. 183,440 product-store pairs.
Supplements & vitamins
3.1% of supplements & vitamins products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 2.1–6.9%), over 22,916,282 product-store days from 14 brands.
55%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 47–65%
54%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 44–69%
193,991 spells
n = 22,916,282 product-store days across 14 brands. 478,369 product-store pairs.
Household cleaning & paper
4.7% of household cleaning & paper products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 4.1–5.7%), over 10,730,325 product-store days from 5 brands.
67%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 51–82%
71%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 57–81%
186,998 spells
n = 10,730,325 product-store days across 5 brands. 205,308 product-store pairs.
Beauty & skincare
4.3% of beauty & skincare products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 3.1–5.1%), over 36,977,799 product-store days from 12 brands.
67%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 58–77%
51%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 44–60%
329,740 spells
n = 36,977,799 product-store days across 12 brands. 825,980 product-store pairs.
Hair care
5.3% of hair care products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 2.1–11.0%), over 33,546,687 product-store days from 6 brands.
52%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 33–71%
62%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 47–77%
232,828 spells
n = 33,546,687 product-store days across 6 brands. 681,369 product-store pairs.
Beverages & drink mixes
5.2% of beverages & drink mixes products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 3.1–8.4%), over 9,833,599 product-store days from 9 brands.
53%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 42–63%
57%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 45–71%
88,582 spells
n = 9,833,599 product-store days across 9 brands. 194,861 product-store pairs.
Snacks & candy
2.7% of snacks & candy products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 2.2–3.2%), over 14,104,294 product-store days from 7 brands.
61%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 47–76%
57%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 54–60%
83,255 spells
n = 14,104,294 product-store days across 7 brands. 252,041 product-store pairs.
Outdoor, auto & farm
5.8% of outdoor, auto & farm products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 1.2–14.0%), over 15,152,485 product-store days from 5 brands.
25%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 14–37%
65%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 49–93%
109,435 spells
n = 15,152,485 product-store days across 5 brands. 399,900 product-store pairs.
Home & kitchen
3% of home & kitchen products in stock at a store are reported unavailable there 7 days later (95% range 2.1–4.0%), over 13,859,766 product-store days from 6 brands.
25%
of out-of-stock cases had it at another store within 10 miles
95% range 11–35%
49%
of out-of-stock products back within 7 days
95% range 30–68%
70,011 spells
n = 13,859,766 product-store days across 6 brands. 333,214 product-store pairs.
Store-stock feeds and pickup feeds
Retailers differ in what their website reports. A store-stock feed says whether the product is in stock at that store. A pickup feed says whether the product can be ordered for pickup there, which follows the store's stock but is not the same reading. Both are pooled in the headline; this chart separates them. Retailers are grouped, never ranked.
n = 183,149,556 product-store days; each retailer counted once.
Retailers in the study
The headline pools 68 chains, grouped below by what each retailer’s website reports. 18 more, whose website shows an Instacart catalog, are labelled and kept out of the headline. Retailers are listed alphabetically and never ranked; the ones with a page of their own are linked.
Website reports store stock
- 7-Eleven
- Academy Sports + Outdoors
- Ace Hardware
- Alumni Hall
- Anthropologie
- AT&T
- Atwoods
- Bass Pro Shops
- BevMo!
- BJ's Wholesale Club
- Blain's Farm & Fleet
- Bloomingdale's
- Bomgaars
- C-A-L Ranch
- Coastal Farm & Ranch
- Costco
- CVS
- Dick's Sporting Goods
- Dollar General
- Erewhon
- Five Below
- Giant Eagle
- H-E-B
- Lowe's
- Mathis Home
- Murdoch's
- Petco
- PetSmart
- pOpshelf
- Runnings
- Rural King
- Sally Beauty
- Sam's Club
- Scheels
- Sephora
- Spec's
- T-Mobile
- Target
- The Paper Store
- The Vitamin Shoppe
- Theisen's
- Total Wine & More
- Tractor Supply Co.
- Ulta Beauty
- Verizon
- Walgreens
- Wegmans
- Whole Foods Market
- World Market
- Zumiez
Website reports pickup eligibility
Website combines store stock and pickup eligibility
- Albertsons
- Best Buy
- Casey's
Instacart catalog, labelled and kept out of the headline
- Cash Wise
- Coborn's Marketplace
- Cub
- Earth Fare
- Fareway
- Gelson's
- Harmons
- Lazy Acres Market
- Metropolitan Market
- Mother's Market
- Natural Grocers
- New Leaf Community Markets
- New Seasons Market
- Publix
- Rosauers
- Sprouts Farmers Market
- The Fresh Market
- Woodman's
Retailer pages
Each retailer page answers one question, when products that go out of stock come back, for that retailer alone. There is no ranking of retailers here or anywhere on this site.
How this was measured
One reading is what a retailer's website reported for one product at one specific store on one day: available or not. Days are counted in the store's own time zone, and only days with a reading count. A product at a store enters the numbers only if it was reported available there at least once in the previous 60 days, so products a store never carried are left out.
A restock is the first day an item is reported back after a run of unavailable days, counted only when the item had been available before, had been in the data for more than 14 days, and its listing was not edited during the run.
Every number is computed per brand and retailer first, then combined, with no brand contributing more than 10% of the pooled total. Each carries a 95% range and its denominator. The full methodology defines every term and lists every filter.
Validation
Every headline number was recomputed on a stricter subset: brands with more than six months of history, compared with all brands at the same 42 chains, so the comparison measures history length rather than chain mix. 58 brands over 96,301,701 product-store days. Every number is shown with the subset beside it, and the table marks any pair that differs by more than 5 points.
| Number | Full sample | Subset | Difference | Within 5 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported unavailable 7 days later | 3.3% | 3% | 0.3 pts | Yes |
| Available within 10 miles | 57% | 50% | 7.2 pts | No |
| Back within 7 days | 60% | 55% | 4.7 pts | Yes |
Limitations
- These are retailer-reported availability readings, not shelf audits. A retailer's website can say a store has an item that is on a back-room cart, or lack one that is on the shelf.
- The sample is the brands that use StoreLocators and the retailers that carry them. It is not a representative sample of all retail.
- Some retailers report pickup eligibility rather than store stock. Those are included in the pooled numbers and separated where the page says so.
- No revenue or lost-sales figures are estimated or implied.
Downloads
The table behind every chart, as CSV. Licensed CC BY 4.0: use it freely with attribution to StoreLocators and a link to this page.
- Transitions from in stock2 KB
Share reported unavailable 1, 7 and 30 days after an in-stock reading, by chain type and category.
- Nearby availability1 KB
Share of out-of-stock product-store days with the product available at another store of the chain within 5, 10 and 25 miles.
- Concentration1 KB
Share of out-of-stock product-store days from the top 10% of products and stores.
- Recovery1 KB
Share of out-of-stock spells reported back within 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days.
- By category6 KB
Findings 1, 2 and 4 by product category.
More on the data page.
Change log
- 2026-09-22First release.
Release 2026-09. Data through September 18, 2026; published September 22, 2026.
About this data
This data comes from the StoreLocators store locator, which shows shoppers where a brand's products are available at retail stores near them. Brands are never named without written permission.