From socks, to homewares to women’s lingerie – the shelves are looking pretty bare in the big retailers. Kmart, Target and Big W have been experiencing issues with stock levels since the April, with a Queensland University of Technology retail expert saying interrupted supply chains from places like China are to blame.

In the case of Kmart, they informed customers via email stock levels would return to normal by mid-July. This has now been pushed out to August.

Professor Gary Mortimer told Gareth Parker retailers with private labels, such as Kmart’s Anko, will be worse off.

“If you own the brand then there’s more profit in that.

“But the issue is if it’s your product and you’re producing it overseas to keep those costs low and there’s a supply chain issue, you’re going to end up with empty shelves.”

Listen to the full interview: