One other point is that Kwak may be right that "In this case, supply is fixed in the short term, so raising the price won't increase supply", but if you allow prices to rise, then it gives stores more incentive to overstock their shelves the next time they anticipate a snow storm.
The big, reputable department stores frequently overstock designers' wares for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day.
It was widely believed that Comme des Garçons would shred or burn overstock rather than have it fall into the short-fingered clutches of jobbers and discounters.
Those brands in turn give Yoox's buyers special access to the best of the end-of-season goods, which are discounted on Yoox.com, relieving the brands of the tricky problem of liquidating their overstock.
What was left over after the sales went to jobbers who brokered the overstock to liquidators such as Loehmann's, TJ Maxx, and Century 21.
As luxury sales increased, so did the problem of end-of-season overstock.
SUSAN ORLEAN: They make a great gift — we bring a dozen eggs rather than wine (or in addition to wine) when we have an overstock.
Unlike his neighbors — buyers, editors, celebrities, socialites — Marchetti did not gain his entrée to the fashion world here, at the pure headwaters of the production line, where next season's looks bubble up in rarefied surroundings, but at the other end, in back-office operations and in the muck of overstock: jobbers, discounters, and liquidators.
Using the Internet to buy clothes is only the beginning; in the future, buyers might use the kinds of data that Yoox mines to make better-informed purchase decisions, which would reduce end-of-season overstock.
When I was maybe nine, I really wanted an Izod shirt for Christmas, like all the kids had, and my mother went around to all the overstock stores until she found one she could afford.
That they are wrong a fair amount of the time is the reason so much overstock exists.
