It should really be that vendors just stock items in proportion to their security, and drop everything they carry regardless of other actions.
A lone defenseless person in the middle of nowhere probably shouldn't carry the equivalent of a small armory on them, and a shop stocked with shelves bursting with valuables should be able to afford some relevant security.
Bonus points if we get a system for merchants to sell all their posessions, I.E. the items that belong to them but are outside of their inventory.
It was incredibly cool to be able to steal from the shelves the same items a merchant sells, and see them removed from stock, in Elder Scrolls.
