While his stores and big chains may stock a similar variety of items, they differ in their overall focus.

To avoid shortages of hit titles, stores should stock more copies.

He pulled the books that the store stocked and handed them to her with a sigh.

Imagine the even greater frustration many feel because the stores never stocked their size in the first place.

Such stores usually stock more than 50,000 titles, compared with 10,000 in the average chain store.

"It would let the stores buy and stock more copies for the customer," he says.

The store stocked 11 varieties, but none of them were just the size the customer needed.

And they are not buying the winter supplies that stores have stocked.

Adult optical stores often stock a limited range of young people's frames, or none at all.

The store hasn't stocked greens like those since the eighties.