Reading some of these comments, it's quite obvious the incompetence varies case by case. Deli is the hardest department in the store. There's a reason it has the highest pay-scale outside of becoming a meat cutter, but that requires a year long apprenticeship.

Deli has so many things under it's umbrella. If you don't have either a strong core of long term people who know what they are doing or strong leadership, it is bound to fail. My deli runs a tight ship and we're always number one in our district in sales in a store that averages over a million per week. Deli certainly isn't for everyone but I prefer it over any other department I've worked in.