It's not just you – stores are cutting back on product variety and how many choices you can make

• The retail shopping experience has changed drastically in recent years, and consumers are noticing.
• Stores are cutting back on how many varieties of products they opt to offer. 
• That's in addition to putting products behind lock and key, forcing shoppers to wait for staff.

From locked-up products to slimmer pickings, the retail experience has changed drastically in the last few years.

If you think your variety of options is slimming down, you may be right.

Retailers are shifting to offering customers less variety on products with questionable success and doubling down on bestsellers, instead, Axios reported.

For example, Coca-Cola, which used to have 400 different drink options, has reduced that to about 200, The Daily Record reported. Goodbye, Diet Coke Feisty Cherry.

What started as a pandemic-era bottleneck that left some products unavailable has turned into a conscious choice by retailers who are grappling with inflation, theft, and a harsh economy, per Axios.

Some chains like Macy's and Kohl's are slimming down their in-store product options and offering a wider variety of products online, Axios reported.

At the same time, brands are expanding their selection of budget-friendly, store-owned products. One example is Target's Dealworthy line, which features hundreds of "everyday basics" priced at or under $10, Business Insider previously reported.

Some retailers reported that customers didn't seem to mind that slashed products never returned to the shelves, The Wall Street Journal reported. Experts believe the slimmed-down choices could also help reduce stress for shoppers, Axios reported.

"With volumes down, retailers are trying to be more efficient. Part of that means cutting lines that don't sell well," Neil Saunders, managing director at the analytics and consulting company GlobalData, told Axios.

Many consumers are also resorting to value-hacking, meaning they fill their shopping cart with some cheaper products to offset their more expensive, brand-name purchases, BI previously reported.