Wall Street Analysts Misinterpret Back-to-school Sales Plunge

This week the financial world reported that retail stores posted very weak back-to-school sales, especially for the teenage market.
Naturally they blamed the drop in sales, which was even larger than what was predicted by Wall Street analysts, on the economy.
I think the experts got it wrong, although certainly the economy did not help the situation.
But I believe the plunge in back-to-school clothing sales is more a product of changing tastes by young people today.
When most of us were growing up, August was a time when our parents would drag us to local clothing or department stores to buy our crisp new school clothes. Actually my parents literally had to drag me, and I have a feeling most boys probably had to be forced to go shopping. I am not sure that “dragging” was an appropriate word for young girls, who probably enjoyed shopping for new clothes.
Anyway, in the last few years things have changed. My brother has owned a clothing store that has catered to young people for 33 years. From the late 1970s until recent years, the back-to-school weeks were his busiest time of year, even out- selling the Xmas season.
Today, the back-to-school sales comprise less than 25 percent of what he sells during the holiday season. In fact this year he told me there really wasn't even a back-to-school season.
Sure the economy is a factor. But I assert that the main reason for the drop off in clothing sales is that young people dress far more casually than they did just a few years ago. In fact not only is casual in, but so is “extreme” casual.
Teens and “tweens” often get their fashion clues from watching television, and on the various shows on Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, or even MTV, they see the Hannah Montanas and their friends wearing baggy shirts and ripped jeans.
I spoke with two friends who teach high school, and both reported that the switch to very casual dress has increased tremendously just in the past two years. One teacher said he would be surprised if boys return to school this month wearing any new clothes. “They will probably be wearing the same torn jeans, baggy shirts, and scuffed sneakers they wore all summer,” he told me, adding “When it's prom time, many boys have to rent shoes, because all they own are sneakers.”
The trend towards wearing the loose fitting jerseys of sports teams has also picked up, as adolescent boys copy what they see on award shows such as the MTV Video Awards and the Teen Choice Awards, where celebrities show up sporting such outfits.
Another teacher told me that the move to very casual dress has even spread to adolescent girls, and he said it is not uncommon to see girls coming to school wearing loose fitting pajamas! “It's like a sleepover sometimes,” he said, further reporting that some girls actually wear slippers to school.
“It's like they just rolled out of bed and came to school,” he added, and he was serious.
Both teachers emphasized that this trend is not a class thing, as even kids who come from wealthier families, and who used to wear more expensive, dressy clothes for school have gone casual. That fact is backed up by recent sales reports, as one of the stores known for selling the most trendy, fashionable clothes, Abercrombie & Fitch, reported a 29 percent drop in sales last month from last August, which was a much larger drop than expected.
All I can say is that times certainly have changed. I can imagine my parents' reaction if I had told them I was going to school wearing my Roy Rogers pajamas.