by If the old chestnut about misery loving company is true, then the home furnishings sector should not feel alone — especially when the topic centers around excess inventory and how that may impact sales for the remainder of the year.
A recent Supply Chain Survey conducted by CNBC seems to indicate that retailers across all product segments believe that the consumer’s holiday spending as well as spending for the remainder of the year is likely to be filled with a mix of discounts and disappointing sales.
Among some of the other findings, the survey concludes that two-thirds of the retailers responding to the survey expect shoppers to key in on discounted goods during the peak season.
The study also suggests that more than half of the sales that are made will be for promotionally priced goods.
Last year, big-box powerhouses including Target and Walmart shook the market up with announcements revealing massive inventory levels that led to months of deep discounting in order to bring inventory levels more in balance.
With that still in place, it is not surprising that when these same big-box entities reported Q1 earnings they stated that consumers are spending less.
Meanwhile, new CNBC retail surveying suggests that the trend of consumers spending less is still in play, with the report saying that situation continues to deteriorate.
The largest grouping of respondents (43%) expect a lower peak season compared with last year, and 21% of those surveyed expect the level of orders to be the same.
And despite inflation levels dipping down from over 9% last summer to 4% in the most recent CPI reading for May, 71% of those responding to the survey worry the consumers will cut back on holiday spending in response to inflation.
