public function getVendorArticleCount($sVendorId)
    {
        // current category unique ident
        $sActIdent = $this->_getUserViewId();

        // loading from cache
        $aVendorData = $this->_getVendorCache();

        if (!$aVendorData || !isset($aVendorData[$sVendorId][$sActIdent])) {
            $iCnt = $this->setVendorArticleCount($aVendorData, $sVendorId, $sActIdent);
        } else {
            $iCnt = $aVendorData[$sVendorId][$sActIdent];
        }

        return $iCnt;
    }