Jean Terrell and Motown

[Bokiluis]

Is it necessary to attack someone for stating their point of view? Unfortunately, The Supremes didn't have a great record of selling albums. The charts bare that fact out. Retailers became apprehensive about carrying titles that they have track records of not selling. They only have a certain amount of dollars to invest in inventory.
That said, unless you lived in secondary or tertiary markets, I cannot imagine that it was difficult to find their albums. Of course, if they only carried 4-5 copies, then it is likely that they soldout. Major retailers like Musicland/Sam Goodys were notorious for carrying limited inventory on certain titles. Whereas retailers like Tower, were more likely to have inventory or at least the flexibility of ordering it in quickly if there was demand. The law of supply and demand.
Only someone with poor business acumen would fail to carry something that they had a demand for. If you tended to shop in smaller indie stores, a good retailer could quickly get titles from their local one stop distributors. Larger retailers refilled stock on a cycle.
A good label sales rep also was responsible for sharing information for a retailer to want to carry [[e.g. Radio play, upcoming television appearances and/or concerts).
"Bad Weather" followed "Mary, Sherrie, and Susaye" which had not done that well. Club play was/is hard to quantify.
Living in San Francisco, retailers like Tower, The Gramaphone & Leopolds always had The Supremes albums on street date. I can only speak for the places I shopped.
So unless you surveyed inventory in most markets around the country, how can one ever speak to every market not having stock.
Add in the fact that Motown wasn't the hit factory it was in the 60s, by 1977, Motown's track record just wasn't the same, unfortunately.
Sorry that someone has difficulty hearing facts and opinions that differs from their own.....ces't la vie.