Yep, if I go to WF and they are out of potatoes, yogurt, and other staples I'm not apt to return the next time.

Another article referred to WF as the "Soviet Safeway".

Exactly. That or custom building/sourcing every customer's purchases are the only way you can optimize purely for waste reduction. What they should be optimizing for is maximum profit, not minimum waste.

That state is a local minimum; “zero sales” is a sufficient but not necessary condition, taken with “zero inventory,” which is necessary but not sufficient.