• Font Size    

Most Popular Videos Featured On KDKA.com

Local Highway To Be Renamed I-376
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

The Economy Could Affect Back To School Sales

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Jul 23, 2008 6:40 pm US/Eastern

The Economy Could Affect Back To School Sales

Reporting
Jon Delano
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― After the Christmas shopping season, the most important retail time for stores is the back-to-school shopping season.
 
The National Retail Federation is predicting that parents will spend $20 billion in clothes, shoes, and supplies for their school-age children.

But strapped by higher gas and food prices, and stagnant wages, parents are re-thinking how to spend their dollars.

And that means there will be winners and losers in this money game.

While it may be another month until school starts up, those back-to-school sales are already making an appearance -- but the real question is whether parents have any money to spend on school clothes and supplies this year.

"Just trying to cut back, the price of everything is going up, so something has to give," says Chris Brechel of Hampton.

And that could hurt some major retail stores -- like Macy's, Sears, and JC Penney's.

The National Retail Federation predicts that the average family with kids will spend $247 on clothing, $117 on shoes, and $103 on school supplies.

"People are going to be spending some money, but they're going to be spending it more on discount types of stores, and not going to the department stores," says Prof. Audrey Guskey of Duquesne University.

Already this summer, sales at discounters like Kohl's are up 10.9 percent, Wal-Mart is up 10.1 percent and Target is up 6.6 percent.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Featured Slideshows On KDKA.com

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Local News

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.