Luxury stores cutting orders

Luxury and specialty stores nationwide are reducing the amount of items they order to balance their inventories--and expectations--post-financial crisis.

Steven Sadlove, CEO of Saks, refers to "enormous excess" as driving sales in 2008, and tells shoppers to expect "less of the sizes, less of the availability in almost all of the categories." Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus cut orders 20 and 25 percent this quarter, respectively.

This author's wife has noticed a similar trend on a local level--the shoe stores in our neighborhood are stocking much less merchandise than last year, most likely in anticipation of lower volume.