us wholesalers stepped up their restocking of supplies in november as supply chains continued to normalize according to data from the commerce department released tuesday inventories of us merchant wholesalers increased 1 in november on month accelerating from octobers 06 increase the reading is in line with economists expectations in a poll by the wall street journal the ratio of inventories to sales increased to 135 in november up from 132 in october and from 121 the same month a year earlier the rate has increased significantly over 2022 as inventories rose amid easing supplychain bottlenecks while sales moderated