Outlets know what they're getting ahead of time. They have a inbound binder that lists all items coming in. Here's the catch, the inbounds only shows product number, or style code and color code. Unless you know all that off the top of your head, you won't know what the item is unless you look up the information. That's why it's easier to tell folks "I don't know what we're getting". Plus outlets get stuff everyday it would be near impossible to go through all the inbounds to match a product with the information provided in the inbound shipping list.
They're rare occassions when an outlet will get a surprise shipment, but even that isn't really a surprise. Corporate will email the store manager saying they'll get a special item , this is how we want you to display the product, this is how we want you to handle the release and etc. Corporate does indeed tell their managers to be hush about certain products, even to the point they have keep it a secret from the employees. A lot of times when people think managers are being shady, it's most likely because they're just doing what corporate asked.
The only time it would be a real surprise shipment is if it's store transfers or an accidental shipment. On the rare occasion corporate will be hush and just send something to the outlet, the employees obviously wouldn't know what they got until the item is processed.
As far as employees buying products before customers, at least in California, it's a no go. I have close friends that work at multiple outlets who were not able to secure themselves the fear IVs. I'm talking about seasoned employees too, like 5+ years working for Nike. I even know of one outlet releasing the Fear IVs on Saturday, that will not sell to their employees for the first 48hours.
Hope this clears up some of the "conspiracies" floating around.
