Two forces have combined over the last fifty years to cripple the retail sector’s once remarkably customer-responsive system. Consolidation has led to chains of hundreds, even thousands, of stores where merchandisers can rarely observe customers and glean the firsthand insights on their likes and dislikes that were available to the mom-andpop operations that once populated Main Streets and city centers. On top of this, global sourcing has created supply chains that stretch across oceans and time zones. These chains save money, connecting stores to the cheapest suppliers, but those gains come at the expense of longer lead times—often half a year for products sourced in Asia. Having to wait so long precludes nimble reactions to customer demand. It often forces retailers to make single purchases for their entire seasons and hope that they have bought what will sell.

在过去的五十年里，两股力量联合起来，削弱了零售业曾经引人注目的顾客反应系统。整合导致了成百上千家连锁店的出现，在这些连锁店里，售货员很少能观察到顾客，也无法收集到顾客喜好的第一手资料，而这些资料正是曾经遍布主要街道和市中心的夫妻店所能获得的。除此之外，全球采购还创造了跨越海洋和时区的供应链。这些连锁店节省了资金，将商店与最便宜的供应商联系起来，但这些收益是以较长的交货期为代价的，而这些交货期往往是在亚洲采购的，通常为半年。长时间的等待会阻碍对客户需求的灵活反应。它常常迫使零售商在整个销售季节进行单一采购，并希望他们已经购买了将要销售的产品。