There’s a New Style for the Back-to-School Ritual

Up in the morning and off to . . . the shopping mall.

The annual back-to-school ritual remains the second-most important selling season behind the year-end holidays. But retail sources say societal changes continue to chip away at the way Americans get ready for the new school year.

National surveys suggest that more than half of the nation’s households with school-age children put off the inevitable shopping until August. But, with most moms and dads working, parents are increasingly unlikely to find the time for an all-out, single-day assault on the shopping center.

“In the old days, mom came home and gave you the stuff you were going to wear to school,” said Tony Cherbak, an accountant who monitors retail industry trends for Deloitte & Touche LLP in Costa Mesa. “There’s a lot more latitude given to the kids than before.”

Mall operators say that peer pressure, which these days translates into hot brand names, is alive and kicking.

“It’s especially true for children leaving elementary school for junior high, or junior high kids starting high school,” said Dennis Denaut, retail manager at Brea Mall. “You see lots of those kids coming back to shop after they go back to school and see what the ‘cool’ kids are wearing.”

But when it’s mom and dad’s money, parents are increasingly likely to bypass Nike and head toward apparel and accessories that are “a good value,” Cherbak said. “It surprised me a bit that, in our recent survey of back-to-school consumers, brand name availability came up so far behind quality and value.”

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Greg Johnson covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5950 and at greg.johnson@latimes.com.