Its shares have eroded steadily from $25 in April 2002 to $1.11 yesterday, a breathtaking fall even in a market known for its fickle customers.

And the recording business faced disgruntled musicians (and investigations into its contracts and accounting) on one side and fickle or hostile customers on the other as sales continued to slide.

It is a minefield they have long ceded to specialists like Gap.com, Bluefly.com and others willing to wrestle with complex shipping operations, fickle customers and higher return rates.

He reckons that fickle customers, uncertain economics and brutal competition will plague retailers for years.

One is the fickle customer, who can embrace a designer one season and scorn her the next.

Now, the company feels it can move more quickly to accommodate the company's core of fickle customers, who love new types of shoes.

MANY clothing companies have trouble appealing to fickle teenage customers, but Hilfiger has additional problems.

But it is retail stores and designers, dogged by years of sagging profits and a fickle customer trained to seek bargains, that have become more aggressive.

Maybe we're fickle customers, or perhaps we'd just rather drive to the mall in White Plains or to bigger nearby Mount Kisco.

Fashion, with its meandering course and dependence on fickle customers with fluctuating bank accounts, doesn't tolerate the sort of business plans that make other industries more predictable and bankable.