Empty shelves at a Walmart in South Carolina due to a mechanical problem, not food shortage

When two shoppers at a Walmart in Columbia, South Carolina, headed to the meat section, they were met with rows upon rows of empty shelves. 

The shoppers recorded what they saw in a video, walking along the empty shelves. "This is crazy. I think we have a trucking shortage or something going on, or a delivery shortage or something, I don’t know. This is trippy," said one of the shoppers. The video, originally shared on TikTok, was posted to Facebook.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It’s true that the shelves were empty, but it’s not because there was a delivery shortage. 

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on October 27, 2024 in Social media posts

Photo shows people lined up outside Madison Square Garden before an Oct. 27 rally by former President Donald Trump.

A Walmart spokesperson told PolitiFact food was removed from the shelves because of a mechanical failure with the coolers but that the staff was able to correct the problem without losing any of the product.

The U.S. has dealt with supply chain issues over the past two years parly because of pandemic-era market corrections and  the war in Ukraine, but some social media posts have exaggerated the effects, sometimes falsely suggesting that they are evidence of a bigger conspiracy.

Although this post doesn’t go that far, the claim that these empty store shelves showed a meat shortage at a Walmart in Columbia, South Carolina, is not accurate. We rate it False.