Unpredictability. If you restock and the tariffs are eliminated or significantly reduced a couple of weeks/month later, that's a disaster. So the best attitude is to wait and see.
I'm not going to restock at 2.5 times the price and take the risk of being stuck with a warehouse full of unsaleable consumer goods that people have suddenly realized they can't afford.
Right, they don’t know how much smaller the demand will be during an economic crisis. It’s safer to have empty shelves until they can more accurately forecast what’s left of demand.
https://retalon.com/blog/inventory-turnover-ratio says
“The average inventory turnover across retail is around 9x”
That means they have about 6 weeks of inventory.
Of course, it varies by industry, but for many, that shouldn’t be alarming.
What do I misunderstand?