Losses from retail “shrink” rose to $94.5 billion in 2021, from $90.8 billion in 2020.

The start-stop pattern of the last two years has led U.S. total business inventories to hit record highs in 2022—a total reversal of what we saw at this time last year.

Should companies continue to follow a just-in-time inventory management strategy? Or should they go back to holding safety stock just in case stockouts occur? The answer is a little bit of both.