Yes, the fashion industry is notoriously fickle and the relationship with the customer is of one bunch of sheep leading another bunch of sheep.
The truth of a particular product situation is obscured because the retailer sheep are frightened of having a stockroom full of unsold merchandise "for which there is no demand". On the other hand the "demand" from the customer sheep only comes about because somebody or something has told them that they must buy xxx this year because to be seen wearing xxx from last year would be deeply unfashionable.
There is a phenomenon in food purchases which illustrates this rather well and results from the proliferation of cookery programs on tv in recent years.
"Celebrity chefs" now abound and the presentation of a recipe somewhat outside the norm will result in supermarkets immediately selling out of stocks of a particular fruit or vegetable on which previous sales have been minimal
(or some supermarkets not able to sell out because they had never stocked the product in the first place).
How many times have we been told by store clerks "We're sorry Sir but we don't stock those - there's just no demand for them any more" ?
It is right for CD to say that all customers should make their wishes known on the purchases they expect to make from the big retail chains but I am afraid it would need millions of Emails to bring about even a slight reassessment of policies in some buying departments.
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