- Retailers had hoped to clear out their glut of inventory this holiday.
- But a “bomb cyclone” before Christmas kept people home and dampened some of the biggest shopping days of the year.
- With one more week before fourth quarter ends, stores are luring shoppers with mega sales.
If you didn’t get that gift that you wanted this holiday, there’s a good chance you can still snag it before year-end. And better yet, at an even steeper discount.
An arctic blast that produced extreme cold, rain, heavy snow and high winds across the U.S. the week before the largest gift-giving day of the year, Christmas, likely kept many last-minute shoppers at home. That’s bad news for retailers who, again, might be left holding more inventory than they want at this point in the year but good for consumers still looking for bargains, analysts said.
Retailers were already inundated with a glut of inventory heading into the holiday as unsnarling supply chains unleashed a bevy of late-arriving merchandise just as inflation reached a 40-year high to squeeze consumer spending. They had hoped to clear much of it with earlier holiday sales and a final push in the final week before Christmas, especially since shoppers got an extra full weekend this year to spend. Then Mother Nature stepped in.
“We could see some big discounting with retailers desperate to clear the inventory now,” said Sonia Lapinsky, a managing director in the retail practice at global consulting firm AlixPartners. “Once…
