Retailers Cite “Data Harmonization Conflict” as Supply Glitches Ripple Across Grocery and Pharmacy Chains

Vancouver, BC —

June 27, 2025 — Grocery and pharmacy chains across Canada are facing a week of delayed shipments, misaligned inventory, and product-level “phantom stocking” due to what vendors are calling a data harmonization issue between fulfillment systems and shared demand algorithms.

Retailers including MapleMart, PharmaNorth, and Everwell Rx acknowledged spot shortages in select categories — including prescription refills, refrigerated goods, and personal care staples — but stressed there is no cause for public concern.

“We’re not dealing with a cyberattack or infrastructure failure,” said Joryn Clarke, a logistics operations director at PharmaNorth. “It’s a temporary miscommunication between vendor-side availability data and local demand forecasts.”

Ghost Shipments and Inventory Drift

The issue appears to stem from a new cross-sector inventory sync standard quietly rolled out earlier this month by LogiSync Canada, a third-party vendor that helps retailers coordinate real-time data sharing across warehouses, franchises, and delivery partners.

Multiple retail brands reported receiving shipment manifests for items that never arrived, while others reported surprise overstock of low-priority SKUs.

“It’s like the system sent vitamins to 12 stores but not insulin,” said a pharmacy technician in North Vancouver, speaking under condition of anonymity. “We’re not out of stock. We’re just out of alignment.”

Industry Plays Down Risks

LogiSync Canada described the issue as a “transient schema conflict” affecting multi-chain forecasting platforms — an issue it says is now being addressed through a rollback and revalidation of its “data trust layer.”

“There is no breach, no tampering, and no data loss,” a LogiSync spokesperson told ODTN News. “This is a backend compatibility event triggered by overlapping prediction models, not a security issue.”

Retail analytics firm Covalent Trends noted that only retailers using hybrid ordering frameworks — legacy ERP tools connected to modern cloud-based prediction engines — appear to be impacted.

“When too many systems talk at once, sometimes nobody listens properly,” said senior analyst Deena Khalili. “It’s not sabotage. It’s just the price of platform complexity.”

Customers Confused, But Calm

Most customers appear unaware of the back-end technicalities and have instead taken to social media with mild complaints about out-of-stock energy drinks, missing baby formula, or prescriptions needing “manual override.”

“It’s not a crisis,” said MapleMart shopper Derek Ng in Richmond. “But it’s definitely one of those weeks where you go in for something, and it’s just… not there.”

Retailers have assured the public that core systems remain operational and that any anomalies are being manually corrected at store level.

On the ground, where infrastructure meets everyday life. — Marcus Tran

ODTN News’ Mira Evans & Ayaan Chowdhury contributed to this report.