Reply #8: Actually, in a Time magazine column

[stanwyck]

asking the Wal-Mart CEO 10 questions, he predicted back in the fall that revenues would probably be down for the holiday season. He based this on the Wal-Mart staff having to put more items back where they belonged...there's a marketing term. What was happening was that people were putting items in their carts, then rethinking their decisions as they couldn't afford all their purchases. So, they'd start taking things out. This caused the Wal-Mart staff (probably, knowing Wal-Mart, off the clock) to have more than ordinary re-stocking of displaced items. Based on the unusually high amount of restocking, he was predicting a downturn for the holidays.
I know I did some of that myself this season...but I did take the time to put items back in their original aisles.
And I was shopping at Target. Not Wal-Mart.