My Blue Sweater, Or The Fine Art of Ignoring Your Customers

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This is my favorite blue sweater. It fulfills the threebasic things I need when I venture out into the world this time of year: it'smy color, it looks good with a sport coat, and it keeps me warm. And it'smachine washable.
So you would think that every year or two I'd simply go downto my favorite department store - or online catalog - and buy a couple, right?Wrong. Most years I go shopping for sweaters, the stores have decided I really wantgreen plaid ones. Or cable-knit ones with big fat ribs. Or ones withembroidered antelopes. Or the $150 rabbit-hair, dry-clean-only version of whatI want.
And yet when I walk around on the streets, most fellowbusiness people are wearing what I'm wearing. I never see them wearingembroidered antelopes. Which leads me to a simple question: How come so manybusinesses won't just sell us what we want?
Another example. This is an Open Oyster from GodivaChocolates. My wife's favorite treat. Whenever I'm on a business trip to amajor city like New York or Toronto, I stop by a Godiva store and get her abunch of them.

So why don't I just go online to Godiva.comand get her more of these anytime? Because Godiva.com won't sell them tome. You can't purchase individual chocolate pieces in quantity. You can,however, buy their All-Sorts-Of-Crap-You-Don't-Want-Plus-An-Open-Oyster-Or-Twoboxed assortment anytime you wish.
This reminds me of when I got my first iPod and discoveredthat I couldn't simply buy a set of replacement Apple earphones for it. LikeGodiva, the geniuses at Apple (pun intended) apparently decided that I had toeither buy them as part of a more expensive package, or get a more well-behavedcat next time. Or my favorite solution, get another brand of earphones.
No substitutions. Only sold as a set. Parts not availableseparately. Wholesale only. How often do we hear phrases like this, when wesimply want to buy what people are selling. At many businesses, some genius keepsthinking up restrictions like these, for reasons that are usually completelybeyond me.
So what is so hard about simply selling us what we want? Insteadcompanies seem to behave in ways my Austrian grandmother would call "schtupid, schtupid, schtupid." I don't understand it. At all. If youcould clue me in, please do so. Thanks!