US children to wear what they wore last year, back-to-school spending falls

A survey by America's Research Group and financial firm UBS showed that American consumers are planning to spend less this year on back-to-school items than they did last year. As the global crisis touched almost every US citizen people are trying to save and cut costs being concerned over job security, higher debt and dwindling income.

The survey reports that 34.4% of parents polled earlier this month said they planned to spend less this year compared to last year.

America's Research Group founder and CEO Britt Beemer says: "Back-to-school spending will be a minor blip on the radar screen for retailers this year.”

The study shows that 41.8% of consumers cited having less money as a reason for cutting back, while 40.5% cited higher debt and 8.2% cited fear of losing their jobs. 33.4% of American parents plan to spend over $400. Last year the figure was 47.0%. Almost nobody - 1.8% of those surveyed - was willing to pay full price this season.

Of the 1,000 consumers surveyed 22.3% said they would shop at the discount chain of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, up from 15.4% a year ago. 10.5% said they would shop at Target Corp as compared with 7.6% in the previous year, 9.6% plan to shop at Sears which is up from 6.4% in 2008 and 7.9% said they would shop at American Eagle Outfitters Inc, up from 6.4% in 2008.

Just over half of parents are trying to get their children to wear what they wore last year.