The Flint Journal: Head of the Class

August 27 , 2006 -- Colleen Grathoff of Burton recently went back-to-school shopping at the Office Depot in Flint, looking for a large three-ring binder for her 12-year-old son. The soon-to-be seventh grader accompanied her, but spent his time browsing in the electronics section.

"He thinks he's getting a laptop but he's not,'' said Grathoff, echoing an age-old summer rift between parents' and students' back-to-school lists.

Grathoff said her husband is a computer systems administrator who has an up-to-date personal computer at home their son can use.

"When they (children) go away to college, a laptop is something they have to have,'' she said, humorously recalling her own college years plugging away on a now-obsolete manual typewriter.

But her son's zeal for his own computer is right in step with his peers.

Computers topped the back-to-school wish list for 70 percent of 13- to-17-year-olds recently surveyed by ShopLocal.com, a national Web-to-store comparison shopping site.

"We're seeing a great deal of interest in some less traditional 'school supplies' during the back-to-school retail season," said Brian Hand, chief executive officer of ShopLocal.com.

"Among some of the biggest searches are for MP3 players - iPods specifically - and cell phones."

Electronics and apparel are key drivers of back-to-school spending this year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2006 Back-to-School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey.

The federation estimates that total spending on electronics or computer-related equipment, such as home computers, laptops, PDAs, or calculators, will increase by more than $1.5 billion this year - rising to $3.82 billion.

That demand is driven by an increasing use of technology in classrooms, according to Stacy DeBroff, a Office Depot parenting adviser and co-founder and CEO of MomCentral.com. Included are products specifically designed to keep backpacks, lockers and desks more organized, she said.

Grathoff said her son likes gadgetry in a major way, but not when it comes to binders.

She had wanted to buy her son a binder with built-in organizers and pockets while doing her major back-to-school supplies shopping two weeks earlier at her favorite Target store. But the boy's preference for cramming everything into one large plain binder necessitated the trip to Office Depot.

Her 16-year-old daughter is just the opposite, Grathoff said. She is super-organized and has a binder for every class.

Grathoff said she plans to spend about $600 total on supplies and three to four outfits for each child. About $100 of that was spent at a Target sale on supplies including paper, pens, dry erasers and graph paper.

"I stock up enough for the whole year,'' Grathoff said, adding that she overbought notebooks last year and still has a lot left.

Also, both children already have "high-end'' backpacks that came with lifetime replacement warranties.

But new backpacks were the first items in the cart for April Craig of Imlay City, shopping in mid-August at the Flint TJ Maxx store with her children, Ashley, 10, Christen, 6 and Chucky 8.

Craig said she did not have a set budget but was shopping from a list that included socks, shoes, underwear and clothing.

"We will start them off with two nice outfits,'' she said, adding that she is buying fewer clothes this year because they already have so many and usually get more for Christmas.

She'll wait to buy supplies until her children's teachers send home a list. That prevents buying unneeded items.

Her kids don't start school until Sept. 5, but Craig described herself as a "last minute'' shopper.

Procrastination is the norm this year, according to the retail federation survey. It found that nearly half of parents surveyed, 41.9 percent, planned to gear up three weeks to one month ahead of school starting, and one in three parents, 32.5 percent, did not plan to hit the stores until a week or two ahead. Only one in six parents, about 16.5 percent, planned to start back-to-school shopping two months ahead.

Contrary to Grathoff's and Craig's plans to scale back spending this year, the federation is predicting increased overall spending by families with school-age children.

The total tab is expected to rise to $17.6 billion this year, up from $13.4 billion last year. The average family will spend $527.08 compared to $443.77 in 2005.

Tallying sales of trendy items including leggings, skinny jeans, argyle sweaters, dark denim, leather jackets and graphic tees, apparel sales are expected to go to the head of the class, with average spending rising to $228.14 per person, up from $205.31 last year.

But counter to contentions that parents spend less on clothing when their children are required to wear uniforms, the federation's forecast is that they will spend more - about $233.73 on clothing and $119.91 on shoes, compared to about $228.14 and $98.34, respectively, for parents who don't have to buy uniforms.

Midwesterners are the big spenders on the back-to-school national map, spending more per capita than any other region in the country, according to a Meijer back-to-school news release.

"With nearly three-quarters of all (back-to-school) purchases made within three weeks of the start of school, Midwesterners are stocking up on everything from a season's worth of clothing to a semester's supply of pens, pads and backpacks,'' Meijer reported, noting that it has become the second busiest shopping season of the year, after Christmas.