Holiday deflation hits as many retailers markdown items to clear out excessive inventory.
Key Details
- As supply-chain issues eased, retailers overstocked items causing them to discount prices to get rid of excess inventory.
- Many product prices are dropping, including smartphones down 9.8%, sporting goods down 0.9%, toy prices down 2.2%, women’s coats down 1.3%, and many other goods.
- While many product prices have dropped, some remain high, including food and airfare.
- Inflation prices still remain high, but the most recent slowdown has eased the prices of some of the most popular holiday gifts allowing for an easier season.
Why it’s news
Inflation and supply-chan issues have caused many popular holiday gifts to be expensive and out of many people’s budget.
This year inflation has begun slowing down, and supply-chain issues have eased up, allowing stores to fully stock shelves. Now retailers are marking down many items due to having too much inventory and trying to clean out leading up to the holiday.
Smartphones, toys, shoes, apparel, and many more things have been heavily marked down by retailers to clean out inventory, which is good news for many holiday shoppers.
Airfare prices have begun to come down falling more than 1% in the last few months, although the prices are still up a staggering 36% from a year ago.
However, the prices for many holiday staples are lowering considerably,, one thing that is still costly—food.
Food prices are continuing to skyrocket, with poultry prices being 13.1% higher than last year and ham rising 8%. Dessert is also going to cost more, with prices up 18%.
Beef is on the other side of the spectrum, with costs falling 8.1% this year.