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.
Most notably, their inventories of guns and ammo have been reduced.
It's been interesting hearing her describe how her store is reacting to the economic situation. I'm an engineer and ran my own business for 18 years, but it was service oriented. Although my family's business was auto parts and I grew up working in and around that business I haven't had to think about inventory management in about 30 years. Her store is on the higher end in terms of what they sell. Most folks consider the clothes they sell to be better quality than what is carried by JC Penny or Sears, for incidence. Their sales for FY 2009 weren't setting any records, but they beat FY 2008 considerably. That surprised me. I would have thought that people were going for cheaper goods. It seems that exactly the opposite is happening. She also says a lot more people paid with cash this year as opposed to other years. She's been doing this type of work for about 20 years now.