Rick Romell & Kylie Gumbert / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – WEST MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The giant pencil cutouts screaming “One Big Sale Here” throughout the Target store are a dead giveaway: This is the country’s second-biggest shopping season. And for the great majority of Americans, the annual back-to-school extravaganza is unfolding across an increasingly price-sensitive […]
Archives for 2014
School shoppers put low prices 1st
Rick Rommell & Kylie Gumbert / Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel – WEST MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The giant pencil cutouts screaming “One Big Sale Here” throughout the Target store are a dead giveaway: This is the country’s second-biggest shopping season.
And for the great majority of Americans, the annual back-to-school extravaganza is unfolding across an increasingly price-sensitive landscape.
Cash-strapped, middle-class parents are being economically challenged by ever-growing lists that have expanded beyond protractors and No. 2 pencils to include graphing calculators, flash drives and Handi Wipes.
Retailers, meanwhile, have started a wave of promotions as they vie more and more on price alone — potentially pinching their bottom lines and signaling a hypercompetitive environment for the critical holiday season just three months away.
Office supply stores forced to think small
Joan Verdon / NorthJersey.com – Staples and Office Depot have a space problem. They have way too much of it — more than 12 million square feet of unneeded store space.
Staples plans to close 225 stores by the end of 2015 and wants to shrink the size of most of its remaining stores. Office Depot, which recently merged with Office Max, intends to close at least 400 stores by 2016. North Jersey, which became saturated with office supply stores, particularly Staples, in the 1990s and 2000s, now faces an oversupply of vacant office stores.
Shoppers hit stores on first day of tax-free weekend
Gary Dinges / Austin American Statesman – Aug. 08–Bargain hunters of all ages swarmed Central Texas stores Friday, the first day of the state’s tax-free weekend.
Through Sunday, retailers aren’t charging state and local sales taxes on most clothing and school supplies priced less than $100. In most cities, including Austin, that means shoppers will save 8.25 cents for each dollar they spend.
Over the course of the three-day weekend, the state comptroller’s office estimates Texans will save $82.7 million.
Shoppers hit stores on first day of tax-free weekend
Gary Dinges / Austin-American Statesman – Bargain hunters of all ages swarmed Central Texas stores Friday, the first day of the state’s tax-free weekend.
Through Sunday, retailers aren’t charging state and local sales taxes on most clothing and school supplies priced less than $100. In most cities, including Austin, that means shoppers will save 8.25 cents for each dollar they spend.
Over the course of the three-day weekend, the state comptroller’s office estimates Texans will save $82.7 million.
At the Tech Ridge JCPenney, located at 12351 N. Interstate 35 in North Austin, shoppers showed up as early as 9 a.m. The store was ready, manager Melanie Wergin said, with all merchandise in the stockroom moved to the sales floor, extra registers and additional employees, including some seasonal workers hired specifically for back-to-school season.
Middle-class shoppers more sensitive to back-to-school supply costs
Rick Romell and Kylie Gumbert / Miwaukee Journal-Sentinel – The giant pencil cutouts screaming “One Big Sale Here” throughout the Target store on Miller Park Way are a dead giveaway: This is the country’s second-biggest shopping season.
And for the great majority of Americans, the annual back-to-school extravaganza is unfolding across an increasingly price-sensitive landscape.
Cash-strapped, middle-class parents are being economically challenged by ever-growing lists that have expanded beyond protractors and No. 2 pencils to include graphing calculators, flash drives and Handi Wipes.
