Black Friday has come and gone — but all those coats, sweaters and hats are still hanging on store racks.
Despite the flurry of shopping activity over the Thanksgiving weekend, retailers are sweating as one of the warmest holiday seasons on record zaps demand for winter gear and weighs on the bottom line.
Barring a blizzard, stores will have little choice but to slash their prices even more to shed their stockpiles after the already heavily discounted start to the shopping season, analysts said.
Many retailers took their cue from last November’s low temperatures — the coldest since 1996 — and loaded up on jackets and other winter gear, according to Planalytics, a consulting firm that tracks the economic impact of weather.
“A lot of retailers based their inventory purchasing on last year’s weather,” said Scott Bernhardt, president of Planalytics.
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