"Brian Gaff" wrote:
To coin a phrase, I don't believe it. Do the buyers in these organisations
actually understand what they stock I wonder?

In the case of laces specifically its surely obvious that if you stock shoes
you need the accessories.

The problem is though that these days, laces as almost as individual in
design as the shoes are and the stock of laces that a shoes shop would have
to keep to match all their stock would be huge.

In practice I don't find it a problem as lace material is vastly better
than it ever used to be and I can't recall when I last snapped a lace on an
ordinary shoe.

Tim