Rising inflation has forced many consumers to back down, particularly low- and middle-income shoppers, multiple retailers say. Cash-strapped shoppers are struggling to pay for groceries and gas and have cut back on discretionary spending.
This has left retailers with too many things wrong – think back to the early days of the pandemic, when everyone was remodeling their homes and buying new laptops. Stores are overloaded with those things now, and they need to mark down those items to meet the demand for juice.
“These retailers have misplaced their inventory,” said Brian Nagel, a retail analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “In certain areas, they have too much inventory and they need to clean it out.”
Where to find discounts
So shoppers can expect to find more deals on discretionary goods like clothing, electronics, furniture, home goods, and bathroom items — the items that have been highly sought after since the start of the pandemic and that many people already have. they bought.
Walmart “Rising levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend,” affecting their ability to buy general merchandise, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said last week. Walmart said it would take more markdowns than it previously expected on all inventory, particularly for clothing.
“As high inflation has continued and consumer confidence has waned, customer demand within the consumer electronics industry has weakened further,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said.
“Customers, particularly low-income customers, have become more cost-conscious and are limiting purchases and/or seeking lower-priced sale merchandise,” the company said. “They are being affected by the general inflationary environment.”
objective: Last month, Target said it was carrying too many large and bulky items such as furniture, televisions and kitchen appliances during the previous quarter as consumers moved away from those products. “We didn’t anticipate the magnitude of that change,” said Target CEO Brian Cornell.
Target marked down some of those larger items to make room for more in-demand products.
“The buying environment is better now than it has been for years,” Burlington Chief Executive Michael O’Sullivan said last month. “We’re seeing brands that we haven’t seen in a couple of years.”
