Surely people aren't surprised by Big W's customer service or lack thereof. Sale or no, the most common response I receive is "If it's not on the shelves we've sold out". They just can't be arsed even looking.

Instead of constantly whinging that people are buying online, maybe the big retailers need to take a good hard look at themselves. I'd prefer to spend the extra dollars to Aussie businesses if they knew what the heck they were talking about. Instead, I'll continue to buy online - door to door delivery without the attitude.

For the most part, online retailers also know how much stock they have on hand so there's no guess work. Why do bricks and mortar stores find it so hard. Perhaps they are using a paper-based inventory system. Time to wake up.