Retailers Receive Some Good News

Offering a dose of good news for retailers, a survey being released today will show that Americans plan to spend 13% more on school clothes this year than in 2002, a very weak back-to-school shopping season.

Shoppers feel they are getting better value for their money this year, and their children’s apparel needs are greater now, since they spent so little last year, said Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of America’s Research Group, a South Carolina consumer behavior research firm that conducted the survey this month.

As a result, shoppers say, they’ll spend an average of $339 this year, compared with $299 in 2002.

Feeling the pressure, many retailers have been moving quickly to get back-to-school products in stores, slashing the prices of summer clothes to make way for fall merchandise.

Sales come in two spurts, according to Elizabeth Pierce, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris who issued a “back-to-school primer” recently.

First come the “mom-driven” sales, when parents stock up on necessities, from underwear to jackets. Companies likely to get a boost from the purchase of basic apparel such as jeans and T-shirts include San Francisco-based Gap Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California, based in Anaheim.

A second wave of selling generally begins after school starts, when teens bend to peer pressure and start buying trendier merchandise. Potential beneficiaries of this period include retailers such as Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. and Charlotte Russe Holding Inc. in San Diego.

Wet Seal has some of its stores outfitted already, and other retailers have been adding new fall merchandise to store racks for weeks. To prompt early sales, retailers are adding more “wear now” offerings, such as lighter-weight pants and sweaters that youths can wear while the weather’s still warm. Some are stocking “summer silhouettes” -- including shorts and T-shirts -- in fall colors, Pierce said.

“It’s hard to sell true cold weather merchandise when it’s 100 degrees out,” she said.

According to Beemer’s survey, discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc. topped the survey’s places-to-shop list, with 16.7% of the 1,000 people polled saying they would stop first at the world’s largest retailer. Sears, Roebuck & Co. ranked second with 11.4% of those queried saying they would shop at Sears first, and J.C. Penney Co. ranked third with 9.2%.

Old Navy, a division of Gap, was the favorite of 6.5% of those polled. Gap and Target stores tied for sixth place with 3.2%.