Data
Where the 2022 inventory went
Index every retailer’s inventory to its April 2022 level and a pattern appears that no single company’s numbers show. The conventional retailers that were caught with the glut are still carrying less inventory than they did then. The off-price buyers that absorbed it are carrying more.
By The Retail Ledger · Eight companies, twenty quarters · September 27, 2026
| Company | Model | Latest quarter, April 2022 = 100 |
|---|---|---|
| Gap Inc. | Conventional | 72 |
| Target | Conventional | 88 |
| Kohl's | Conventional | 78 |
| Macy's | Conventional | 90 |
| Abercrombie & Fitch | Conventional | 105 |
| American Eagle | Conventional | 120 |
| TJX Companies | Off-price | 112 |
| Burlington | Off-price | 123 |
What the pattern suggests
The glut did not evaporate. It moved. Gap sits at 72 percent of its April 2022 inventory, Kohl’s at 78, Target at 88, Macy’s at 90. TJX sits at 112 and Burlington at 123. The companies whose business model is buying other people’s surplus are the ones holding more of it, four years later.
That is what the surplus chain is for, and it is visible here as a balance sheet transfer rather than as a narrative. The mechanism is described in where unsold apparel goes.
The caveats, which matter
These companies have not grown at the same rate. TJX and Burlington have opened stores and grown revenue over the period, so higher inventory is partly a larger business rather than a fuller warehouse. American Eagle, at 120, is a conventional retailer that also grew. The index measures inventory, not inventory productivity.
The right follow-up measure is inventory against sales for each company, which separates growth from accumulation. And Ross Stores is omitted here because the source series contained a duplicated period label that we could not resolve; we would rather drop a company than publish a figure we cannot stand behind.
Source: company quarterly and annual reports. Figures as reported. Free to reuse with attribution to The Retail Ledger.