[Thermalseeker]

The reason that store inventory is limited is because those stores have been reluctant to purchase goods whose sales are highly speculative, especially in the face of falling consumer credit demand.

My wife works for a "big box" retailer popular here in the SE USA. She handles the inventory for the men's department. They started inventory reduction over a year ago. She tells me they have been directed by their management to add display tables and such to make the store look fuller, even though there is about half to two thirds the inventory on the floor compared to a couple of years ago.

[andy58-in-nh]

Your wife’s experience comports with my own. I’m a business analyst (and paid, among other things, to notice such things). Every big box chain store I’ve been in during the past year (including WalMart, BestBuy and Target) has dramatically reorganized its sales space. The paradigm has shifted from “supermarket” to “boutique”; from tightly-spaced and vertically-stacked aisles to wide open spaces populated by horizontal displays. They have also noticeably reduced the number of brands they carry as well as the range of models or varieties.