Al Tompkins latest column talks about how back-to-school sales are down.
We are about halfway through the back-to-school sales season and so far it is shaping up to be the worst in more than a decade.
But it goes way beyond that. Private schools may be out of reach for some families this year. Other families may be cutting back on after-school activities. My daughter’s high school band fees, for example, are hundreds of dollars once you count uniforms and such. I have been hearing PTA-active friends saying that school fundraising this fall will be tougher than ever.
Now tie in this information with the data from the Census Bureau that was posted yesterday.
$7.6 billion
The amount of money spent at family clothing stores in August 2008. Only in December were sales significantly higher. Similarly, sales at bookstores in August 2008 totaled $2.4 billion, an amount approached in 2008 only by sales in January.
Source: Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html
For back-to-school shopping, choices of retail establishments abound:
In 2006, there were 25,430 family clothing stores, 6,417 children and infants clothing stores, 26,699 shoe stores, 9,425 office supply and stationery stores, 23,270 sporting goods stores, 10,989 bookstores and 9,969 department stores.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2006 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/county_business_patterns/012181.html
And you can see a variety of stories that build on the stories Al talks about.