I sometimes think retail locations seriously misunderstand their business. It’s only partly to sell things, because their main business is actually smoothing o

I sometimes think retail locations seriously misunderstand their business. It’s only partly to sell things, because their main business is actually smoothing out supply chains. As a customer, I want my supply of things I need or want to not be coupled to other people’s buying timings or supplier timings. Stores switching to just in time stocking routinely fail at this, because variance is non-zero. This in turn destroys my ability to just go there and buy something, and hence the value the store provided. I have the same problems at most grocery stores, these days, where routinely things I want are transiently out of stock.