This one’s gonna be a shocker to most readers: Consumers aren’t going to spend nearly the amount of money on back-to-school items this year as they have in the past. A study by America’s Research Group says sales will drop between 8.5% and 12% from last year.
“Back-to-school spending will be a minor blip on the radar screen for retailers this year,” says Britt Beemer, founder and CEO of America’s Research Group.
Of those surveyed, just over half said they would try to get their kids to wear last year’s clothes. This year a little more than 33% said they would spend more than $400, down from 47% last year.
And if people are shopping, they’re heading to the discount store. Most people in the survey, 22.3% said they would do their shopping at Wal-Mart, up from 15.4% in 2008.
It’s a truly sad state of affairs when kids are forced to shop for clothes at Walmart. We middleagers don’t have the severe peer groups tweens and teens have and the right shirt or pair of sneakers can make the diffderence between which click accepts you.
Back to school is becoming back to the closet. Shopping your closet will be bigger than ever with a few more purchases for the girls, who will demand something new.
Watch your dollars, but use your sense!
Consumers should be careful about putting the right messages in their kids filing cabinets. While the kids can do very nicely going back to school in the fashions they already own, or can get from a brother, sister or other relative, their educational and developmental products need to be matched with each child to encourage his or her skills, abilities, interests and preferences so your child is encouraged to take on new learning experiences and educational challenges.
Spend your money wisely on the right tools that are properly matched with your child so important deliverables in each product have a positive impact on the child’s learning experience and development.
Cost Saving Hint:
If you can’t afford winter boots for your children put them in heavy socks and tennies and then wrap their feet in a plastic baggy with a rubber band at the top. It works great to keep their feet dry, put they don’t have much grip on the ice!
It’s time we gently break it to the kids that they too have enjoyed the excess that our society has recently over-indulged in.
It’s as good as an opportunity, perhaps the only one, to explain how successfully we lived in simpler times….
While there is nothing wrong with a certain amount of wanting to keep up with “the jones” let’s face it- we got out of control.
No more prominently are the downsides of our greed on display than in the current state of our domestic national affairs. The severity and extent is such that it will take so long to fix that our childrens children will be dealing with the outfall.
Boo-hoo, our kids will have to shop at Wal-Mart. I may not have liked it, but while in school most of my clothes came from K-Mart. Kids need to realize that the economy is effecting everyone – even them. Let the kids earn their own money if they want to buy the “in” labels. Maybe it will sink in that you need to work for what you want, and that wearing a certain label doesn’t mean you will be in the right “clique” anyway.