Walmart Canada's Flyer Madness

I'm posting this as a sanity check of sorts that Walmart Canada's flyers make no sense at all. Here's what got me down this path...

Last week's flyer advertised prominently that Patak's cooking sauces were on special and I thought I should stop by to pick some up to make myself some butter chicken. When I went to the store, I checked the sauces section and the East and South Asian section. There was nothing on the shelf (among the shelves being empty is now a normal occurrence) -- no price tag, no display, not jars or bottles of Patak's anywhere. So I went to the nearest associate and asked them to help me find some and showed them the flyer. They asked me, what kind of sauce do I want since it is a "general code" for the product category in the flyer rather than the actual kind of sauce (Tikka Masala; Butter Chicken; Korma; etc). Off to the East Asian section we go and and they scanned a tag on an empty shelf and they pressed a few buttons on their scanner to tell me they aren't getting any stock in with no plans to do so -- on a flyer sale item!

So I asked them what is going on? I understand the supply chain is in disarray, but this is unacceptable that a flyer item is: not in stock with no plans on getting any in; there's no stock on the shelf; no tags or anything as if the item was never stocked.

Here's what the associate told me: first they apologized for the confusion, and then said they actually plan their flyer one year in advance. I was totally surprised and dumbfounded about how can anyone possibly know what's on special a year from today?! And to how much to sell it for?! I hope Walmart aren't hiring tarot card readers and prophets with crystal balls to see into the supply chain future...

In all seriousness, I find this maddening if it is true what the associate said and would explain the more and more apparent discrepancies between flyer and the actual stock revealing massive chasms in their advertisement and available stock. There would also be many times where the flyer item would be on the front page, but there's no stock and by the time new stock would arrive, it would go back to the regular price. And remember Walmart stopped issuing rainchecks many years ago, so there's no way to hold that price. And they also stopped doing price matches as well.

Lately with the war in Ukraine and the global supply chain still in massive disarray, Walmart's flyer has gotten a lot thinner and most "sale items" in their flyer is regular price. Furthermore, there's no fruits and vegetables on special anymore. So if the flyer was one year old, how would Walmart know a year ago that they would not be getting any fruits and vegetables at a sale price this week?

All this is based on the assumption that their buyers are able to negotiate a great price for them to place that item on sale that week. Other than that, maybe Walmart just randomly picks things to go on sale throughout the year regardless of the original item cost, and resulting selling at a loss (hence the term loss leader, retail jargon). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Can anyone confirm or have more info on this craziness at Walmart? I find it an adventure (and misadventure most of the time) when shopping at Walmart these days and losing my sanity in the madness of their "sale items". What is the point in printing a flyer when its credibility is lower than the cost of the paper it's printed on?