The Dollars of Back-to-School

Just how much do consumers spend on back-to-school purchases?

Depends on whom you ask.

American Express’ fifth annual back-to-school survey says parents will spend an average of $342 on clothing and supplies this fall. Combined with another $113 teenagers will chip in themselves, the total represents a 12% increase over 1998, American Express says.

Retailers may want to wait to break out the Dom Perignon, though.

A rival surveyor, FrenchToast.com, the online arm of a New York-based school-uniform maker, says parents spend a comparatively modest $211 on back-to-school gear.

What gives?

“I wouldn’t even want to hazard a guess,” FrenchToast.com spokesman Jon Newman said.

American Express begged off too.

“We would have to know their methodology,” said Joanne Fisher, an American Express spokeswoman.

The surveys agree that apparel remains the dominant back-to-school purchase. Teenagers prefer specialty stores, but parents ranked mass marketers such as Wal-Mart and Kmart as their favorite spots to shop, American Express said.

That may be at the root of a provocative statistical nugget in the FrenchToast.com survey: Some 7% of parents said the most time-consuming part of back-to-school shopping was arguing.