WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — Families with kids in kindergarten through 12th grade plan to spend about $864 on back-to-school shopping this year. That is a few dollars more than last year. Added up across the country, it comes to $43.3 billion, a record. The numbers come from a survey of 7,677 shoppers by the National Retail Federation, a group that speaks for stores. Electronics cost the most, about $293 per student. Clothes come next at $250, then shoes at $174. Pencils, notebooks and the rest of the school list are the smallest piece, about $146.
Why it matters: The supply list your teacher hands out is the cheapest part of going back to school.
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — Families with children in kindergarten through 12th grade expect to spend an average of $863.86 on back-to-school purchases this year, according to the National Retail Federation's annual survey, a nominal increase over last year's $858.07 that adds up to a record $43.3 billion nationally. The survey polled 7,677 consumers between July 1 and July 8 with a stated margin of error of 1.1 percentage points. The composition of that spending is considerably more interesting than the total: electronics lead at $293.11 per student, followed by clothing at $250.29 and shoes at $174.01, while the actual school supplies that appear on a teacher's list come last at $146.45, roughly 17 percent of the whole. College families report spending $1,437.79 per student. Two cautions belong on these numbers. The National Retail Federation is a trade association representing retailers, and its survey measures stated intentions in early July rather than receipts collected in September, a distinction that matters because the two regularly diverge. More consequentially, a nominal increase of $5.79 on a base of $858 falls well below inflation, which means real spending per family declined even as the national total established a record, a record driven by enrollment and by prices rather than by families purchasing more. NRF Chief Economist Mark Mathews framed affordability as the season's central concern. One supporting indicator: only 41 percent of shoppers plan to purchase online this year, the lowest proportion since 2016, which analysts interpret as evidence of comparison shopping in physical stores rather than a retreat from e-commerce.
Background
Back-to-school is the second-largest retail season after the winter holidays, which is why the figure gets published and quoted every August. It has slowly stopped being a stationery number: electronics were a rounding error in these surveys twenty years ago and are now the largest single line, reflecting how much of the school list has moved onto a device.
Why it matters: A record total paired with a real per-family decline is the same data telling two stories. Which one gets reported shapes what people believe about their own finances.
What to watch: Actual August and September retail sales data from the Census Bureau, which will show whether the intentions held.