Posted on 07/25/2022 12:28:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
After two pandemic years of stocking up on stuff – desk, chair, bookshelf, dresses, blender, knives – Rachel Premack is now all about travel and saving what she can. Last year, she had the stimulus dollars and nowhere to go; now, she's got weddings and family visits and worries about rising prices.
This, on a nationwide scale, became the recipe for a whole new problem for some U.S. stores: a glut of inventory.
"It is just a really bizarre back and forth kind of situation," says Premack, who has followed all this as an editorial director at the logistics outlet FreightWaves. "Inventory managers at major big box stores don't even know how to navigate what's happening anymore, they are just exhausted."
Big box stores like Target and Walmart are particularly working through an excess of certain items.
Target has specifically named TVs, kitchen appliances, outdoor furniture, electronics and fitness supplies, with the CEO saying the chain did not anticipate "the magnitude" of the spending shift from goods to services. Some clothing stores, too, such as Gap, got stuck with too many hoodies and athleisure as office workers quickly jumped back into suits and dresses.
"If you think about it, [stores are] ordering goods three, six, even nine months in advance," said Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation. "Retailers base their forecasting on historical behavior. But there is no template for what consumer behavior looks like coming out of a pandemic."
This year's hot retail term is the bullwhip effect.
It describes how dips or jumps in demand can get exaggerated by retailers, their suppliers and manufacturers. Take the pandemic darling, the air fryer. When demand suddenly rises, stores rush to avoid empty shelves, ordering a few extras just in case. Their suppliers also order extras from factories, which also make even more extras – until, abruptly, there are too many air fryers right as people are kind of done buying them.
What does that mean now? Shoppers might see sales on some items, such as storage baskets or armchairs, particularly at big box stores. More goods will go to liquidators and discount stores. But it also means another chaotic year for suppliers, like Curtis McGill from the Texas toy company Hey Buddy Hey Pal.
The other day, a large retailer completely rescinded a commitment to buy one of McGill's best-selling sets. A big toy trade show produced fewer orders, too, he said, by over a third. Stores are cautious about future demand – partly because of inflation uncertainty, but partly because their money is tied up in storing and sorting out the inventory glut.
"You could say for being in the toy business this last probably 12 month [period] has not been as much fun as it should be," McGill said.
The shopping frenzy has slowed but hasn't ended.
In the next few weeks, new data will show how long this inventory glut might last, said Jason Miller, who tracks retail inventories and sales at Michigan State University. Initial evidence suggests the retailers with bloated inventories are already starting to get things under control.
Still, importers continue bringing in near record-high amounts of goods to the U.S., he said. That's because even though last year's shopping frenzy has slowed, Miller said, people are still buying more products than they did before the pandemic.
Get one, you will love it. Living in AZ the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven. I use it two or three times a week.
Thanks. I’m anxious to try onion rings and the frozen battered fish.
Foodie Ping!
I can’t remember the last time I deep-fried anything. The calorie content is absolutely ridiculous. I make awesome Zucchini Pancakes, but that’s just a little EVOO in the pan for browning.
Of course, if we’re subjected to WW III and food is scarce, I guess I COULD learn to deep fry roadkill; calories will be a precious commodity in those Dark Days. ;)
My sister has an air fryer and she loves it. *SHRUG*
“’If you think about it, [stores are] ordering goods three, six, even nine months in advance...’”
Um. Duh. Anyone with Retail Management experience KNOWS this. 18 years, myself. (No wonder I drank, LOL!)
I’ll ‘see’ this MINOR problem and ‘raise’ them living through, ‘The 0bama Reign of Error.’
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome! It ain’t Rocket Science!
Excess Inventory is a friggin’ CAKE WALK, compared to what some of us in The Retail Trenches lived through back then!
Yeah. I know. Broken Record. But it sucked! I’m STILL fuming, and I’m Retired since 2016!
Has President Potato Head learned of their plight? I’m sure he’d be HAPPY to sign an EO ORDERING US ALL to buy more sh!t we don’t need. You know, to ‘save’ the Brandon-conomy. Or something...
*SPIT*
“End of season or whatever Sale!”
My, ‘Middle Child’ was a MAJOR Early Riser. He’d get up at 4am, fix himself some cereal and watch Info-Mercials until the rest of the household started to stir.
He woke me at 5am one morning: “Quick! I need the phone and your credit card!” He wanted a Sobakowa (sp?) pillow, LOL!
Whenever I found ‘Seen On TV’ things at Goodwill or St. Vincent’s, I’d pick them up for him.
The year he got a ‘Bloomin’ Onion Maker’ for Christmas, the kid had TEARS in his eyes, LOL!
“Air fryers, the bread machines of the 21st century.”
Nailed it. We finally Goodwilled our bread machine after not having used it in at least 6 or 7 years. I suppose you could refer to bread machines as the waffle irons of the late 20th century. When I was a kid, everyone had a waffle iron and nobody used them.
I might get an air fryer someday, once they get really, really cheap. (Remember how much the earlier microwaves cost?) I’d like to be able to borrow one and try it a few times first, though.
I’m ready too, but probably want a multi-purpose/function type. Emeril’s French Door 360 double tiered with chrome up the Coozah! ;)
I use my air fryer four or five days a week. It’s great.
Honestly, if this was a service, I'd consider it.
I love my air fryer but it takes up a lot of real estate in the kitchen and, really, I only use it 2-3 times a month.
Owning things is great but also, in some situations, renting things would also be convenient.
“These larger companies believed they could build programs to forecast demand and control flow so they laid off entire teams of planners, allocators, forecasters.”
All a bunch of button pushers playing the statistics game. Hey, it’s AI! The top dogs are making excuses for these losses. Do you think they allowed their minions to do the same before they fired them?
So you like yours and it covers all the functions - so what is it?
Maybe on sale? Thanks.
;-)
“Air fryers - but are they any good?
Tater Tots. ‘nuff said.”
I had to quit and am still attending meetings...
I really don’t know if Hub got it on sale.....it’s a Ninja and we got it for between 150 and 200 bucks I think......we really like it and put it to good use. When I was able to cook cornbread and biscuits in it I was sold......;)
Ours is a basic type with a basket type drawer. We’ve made coconut shrimp, tater tots, and tonight sliced fingerling potatoes (like thick potato chips). So far so good. I was looking only for the air fryer feature to cut down on oils and fats if I sauté, like I would normally do with coconut shrimp. I feel like I have every other kitchen gadget or appliance known to mankind, except a bread maker. Not planning to get one of those (yet!).
Air fryers don’t ‘deep fry’; we’re still experimenting with ours, but I would never give up my deep fryer.
It’s great for doing things like shrimp toast (for some reason, none of our Chinese carryout places have that anymore) and Gyozas (potstickers) and fish and chips.
Also good for doing rosettes and timbales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX1dVaU3pSU
I’ve had the same bread maker for twenty years. I use it every week. What’s wrong with bread machines?
Nothing is wrong with them.
We have one almost as old. They are great, even if you only use them for the initial phases, and then do the bread in the oven.
Who said there was anything wrong with them? We found ours to be unnecessary, as have many other people. If you like to use yours, good for you.
I guess I misread your post. I make two loaves of country white bread a week in mine and then one loaf of beer bread in the oven for a crusty bread we like. I even have learned to make a pretty good cornbread in the bread maker. I love cornbread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.