And landlords, once responsibility for the store returns to them, often prefer to fill the spaces with price-point retailers rather than leave them empty and pay the tax.

WSJ: U.K. Retail Rents Drop as Stores Close

Also, many people wanted to avoid shipping charges and to be able to walk into a store to make returns, which was impossible even at Levi's retail outlets.

FORBES: Denim Disaster

Other problems include regulations specific to online sales, such as those relating to distance selling in the EU, which dictate retailers have to offer cash for returns rather than just store credit.

BBC: Business

So a less exciting but potentially more potent idea is to increase one's savings rate given the possibility highlighted by my BAM Alliance colleague Larry Swedroe that lower returns across all asset classes may be in store.

WSJ: The Experts: Finding Income Despite Low Interest Rates

Retailers like Eileen Fisher and Patagonia are accepting returns of their worn products -- Fisher resells them in her Green Eileen retail store, while Patagonia recycles theirs into new products.

CNN: The fashionista's dilemma: Cheap clothes

His character, Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani, works on a road crew during the day and as a clerk in a convenience store at night, but he changes into a perfectly tailored gray suit after each job and returns home to his family behind the wheel of an old, immaculate Mercedes.

NEWYORKER: House of Sand and Fog