That's one way of looking at it.
Another is that there just isn't enough demand for the stuff, which leads to the close-out pricing. DVC may be a growing segment of the market, but it's still limited. The WDW parks host about 60 million guests per year, and there are only 120,000 or so DVC families. And many of those people have been members for many, many years, with no desire to buy more DVC gear.
I usually come home with 1 or 2 new Disney shirts after each trip, but I'm pretty much tapped-out when it comes to DVC stuff. The only DVC item I've bought in the last 3-4 trips is a t-shirt I got at the outlets on clearance.
BTW, for the OP, I started keeping a list of DVC merchandise in the stores. Check out this page:
http://dvcnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=279&Itemid=160
The page includes instructions for mail order direct from Disney. If you call or email and provide them with the SKU, they should be able to find out if the item is still located on-site.