NEW YORK, NY, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The Ghost of Christmas Past haunts U.S. store shelves, sales floors and stockrooms this year.
Retailers were sitting on $548.8 billion of inventory in July, a 21.6% increase from last year, according to U.S. Census data.
Even with retailers slashing prices by up to 40%, shoppers so far this year are hesitant to make major holiday purchases.
Increased markdowns and slowed consumer demand may hurt companies' gross margins, said Cowen retail analyst John Kernan in an October note.
Analysts are expecting gross margins to shrink for each of the companies next quarter, according to data from Refinitiv.