In back-to-school shopping, big retailers play tug-of-war with parents

Are you waiting for Labor Day sales to finish your back to school shopping? Good luck. If stores have their way, pickings in the clearance racks will be slimmer this year than in the past.

Knowing this back-to-school season would be weak, retailers cut back inventories and shopped more carefully for merchandise, hoping to have fewer leftovers that need to be marked down as the first day of school draws near. But parents are pinching pennies, which leaves the two sides playing a game of retail chicken -- probably until after Labor Day.