Further to the 1994 era, the sneakerheads were all about the 1/2/3 retros that dropped that year(ish). It still was a big deal, Jordan was a god, etc. Dudes who picked up a pair turned heads, we all geeked over them. I recall kids even rockin em in games in our state tournament.
The difference was there were just so few people paying attention to sneakers back then relative to the population. You picked up your one pair, you moved on. (I grabbed the black/red 1's which I still have and wear 28 years later). The rest of the world had no idea what they were, and no one who was interested thought to buy 6 pairs.
So this giant stock sat, much like sneakers did back then (yes a year or so later the XIs were still available for weeks in most sizes). It was normal. What goes on now is not normal.