Back-to-School Slump Raises Concerns About Holiday Season

[Purveyor]

By Lindsey Rupp Sep 23, 2014 10:44 AM ET

U.S. retailers are suffering through the slowest back-to-school shopping season since the recession ended in 2009, raising concern that the year-end holidays will bring more of the same.

Spending in the period, which continues through the end of September, has risen 3.1 percent, missing a forecast for a 3.2 percent gain, according to research firm Customer Growth Partners LLC. That’s the smallest increase in more than five years. Another ominous sign: Store traffic declined 4.2 percent in July and slipped an additional 4.7 percent in August, according to ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based research firm.

The back-to-school shopping rush is second only to the holiday season in its importance to retailers, and some analysts view it as a harbinger for the rest of the year. Chains have cut prices and stepped up sales promotions to entice customers, without much success, and e-commerce competition is growing.

“It was by no means robust in any way, shape or form,” Ken Perkins, president of industry tracker Retail Metrics LLC, said in an interview. “Competition is going to remain fierce, and there’s going to be a significant amount of promotions taking place.”

Gap Inc. (GPS), the biggest clothing-focused retailer in the U.S., and Urban Outfitters (URBN) Inc., long seen as a teen mecca, both reported a sales decline in August from a year earlier.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-23/back-to-school-slump-raises-concerns-about-holiday-season.html

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Gosh, I wonder why?

Could it be because 93% of the recovery went to the richest of the rich, and most of the rest of the country keeps losing ground against rising costs?

[upaloopa]

2. At some point business will get the hint. You

can't continue to hold down the consumer and have a good economy

[onethatcares]

3. this is what you get

when all you kill the working poor and middle class.

You know that somewhere there is a group trying to find a way to do away with both material and labor and

give themselves big paychecks.


OOOOOPs, that would be the banksters, my bad

[CrispyQ]

4. The new war will benefit the owners of MIC stock. They will have a nice Christmas.

Lumps of coal for the rest of us.

The company my husband works for is in the process of sending two departments jobs to Hyderabad. They have to train their Idian replacements & will be out of jobs by Jan 15. John Boehner will call them lazy & entitled.

[bigwillq]

5. It's because, for many of us, there wasn't any kind of recovery

So many people are still struggling.

[logosoco]

6. Somehow I just can't seem to work up any concern for these companies.

Maybe for the people who work at these stores and need extra hours over the holidays.

I am not a genius at math, but it seems to me that if everyone was paid a decent wage, the stores would be selling more stuff.

[DJ13]

7. They propped up the wealthy, but forgot the 99%

A consumer driven economy requires........ consumers.

It aint rocket surgery.

[librechik]

8. I wish we could all throw off the chains of consumerism.

ack,we're drowning on growth.

[MineralMan]

9. It moved online.

That's clear later in the article. Actual stores are a pain in the ass these days. Shopping from your PC or tablet is so much easier, the variety is larger, and you can compare prices quickly and easily. Why would anyone go to a physical store these days? You get there and the thing you want is out of stock in your size, if you're shopping for clothing. If you're looking for office and school supplies, you can get it cheaper and it comes right to your door, so you don't have to go in and hunt for the crap you need.

The retail industry keeps pretending that the old days of in-store shopping will return if they only do just the right thing. It's not returning, folks. Not a chance. It's over.