Jul 13

Written by: IRI Blog
7/13/2009 12:32 PM

We’re curious at IRI, as are many retailers, marketers and manufacturers, how consumers are planning to spend their hard-earned dollars for the Back-to-School season this year.  In our continuing efforts to track the trends influencing consumer attitude and spending cycles often visible during common traditions like back-to-school, we’ve launched a survey to shed some light on the topic.

Later this week, we will release the survey findings that analyze back-to-school shopping strategies from 2008 versus 2009, as well as any new affordability strategies that have emerged during the past year.  Specifically, we think it’s valuable to learn whether consumers are changing their strategies this year, and if so how and why? The survey results will come from more than 1,000 U.S. households with children and digs into whether consumers are going to gear up or cut some things out?  How will they prioritize these decisions?  Are parents able to purchase new wardrobes for the new school year or will other strategies come into play, such as consignment store shopping or using more hand-me-downs?

In addition learning how much consumers plan to spend, it will also be interesting to examine where they plan to spend.  When shopping for supplies and clothes, what kind of store is most appealing right now?  Supercenters, dollar stores, mass merchandisers?  We’ll soon see.

The survey also takes a close look at consumers’ food purchasing behaviors.  We’ll examine what parents think will work best for their wallets - prepared lunches or cafeteria cash?

Check back with us soon for a post on our findings and feel free to let us know if you have any questions, thoughts or ideas you’d like to share.

Take care,
Thom Blischok

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