It seems my inadvertent ruining of my winter gloves (note to self; do not put gloves in the dryer without checking their label first) came at a particularly bad time: the very cold winter weather the US has been having has made new winter glove demand far outstrip supply. There are none at brick-and-mortar stores, and even the gloves I ordered online on January 23rd are out of stock, and have been delayed until 3/31/14. I am one small data point in a vast economic object lesson!