With changes to the way in store promo planning is done (buying and marketing doing most of it centrally and each store having little to no control over it), stores will get sent stock for ends if they need/want it or not. Even things that don't sell in that area. Even lines that store does not normally sell.
The last numbers I heard, for a "medium" store, the store is required to tie up to 8 front ends (eg, in most stores that size, all front ends) and 1 back end. (these are the ones the suppliers pay for). This then leads to stores getting stock that they can't sell because buying and marketing don't listen to what the stores tell them, force stock on them, then blame the store when most of it needs to get marked down.
A lot of the problem is that the people at Norwest who decide a lot of things have never worked in stores before, don't listen to the staff who do and if they hear anything that goes against what they've already decided, they ignore it and act surprised when things don't work/happen the way they thought it would.