Retail frustration

Have you been shopping lately?  You go into a store, see something prominently displayed, ask for it in your size and find out that it is out of stock. Not just your size but all sizes.

Just last week I tried to buy a new pair of tennis shoes. I asked to see a particular style and was told that they had sold out. I tried a different pair only to be told the same thing. This happened to me in three stores in a row.

Frustrated, I asked a clerk what was going on and was told that they were getting in a lot less inventory than last year. The clerk went on to vent her frustration by saying that even when they tried to restock they were told by their warehouses that it would be weeks before they could get products back in stock.

I think that this trend of short inventories, though understandable in this economy, is ultimately suicidal. How many consumers, particularly this generation of internet savvy shoppers who are accustomed to finding what they want on line, are going to continue to put up with the hassle of going to the store only to be disappointed?  

As I have said in the past, all it takes for a bricks and mortar retailer to run into trouble is for it to lose just enough customers to the internet that they cannot support their current square footage. That day is surely coming and this recent spate of out of stocks is hastening a coming day of reckoning.