Back in July, early research showed that families planned to spend slightly more on back-to-school shopping than last year. A different survey by the National Retail Federation shows that families plan to spend less on back-to-school shopping this year. In addition to starting the back-to-school season earlier, it seems that retailers are extending it for longer, realizing that youngsters have learned to bargain-hunt as well as their parents.

“I think I buy on sale because my mom never buys something unless it’s on sale,” one 14-year-old told an Associated Press reporter. That makes sense: kids who are in school now have spent their whole lives or at least their formative years in either a recession or a post-recession economy, and have also learned how to shop in a retail environment where discounts are plentiful.

A mere late-summer sales tax holiday isn’t enough to get kids of the Great Recession into stores: they want items to be, say, 40% off. That’s a problem for retailers, who are actually trying to wean us all off deep discounts.

Teens are shopping more like their parents [AP]

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