NEW YORK (AP) —

Gold Medal International is sitting on millions of dollars’ worth of socks at its North Carolina warehouse that it can't ship to stores.

The reason? The 66-year-old family-owned sock maker can't get enough credit insurance to cover potential losses if the stores can't pay for the goods they've ordered.

Without that insurance, Gold Medal — and thousands of other suppliers facing a similar dilemma — would be on the hook for unpaid bills. But not shipping the goods to retailers means losing sales and big write-downs on inventory. The problem will only get worse if retailers can't...