They seem to be spending less and going for the sales alot more then they did in the past.
But new trends show that teens are going frugal, shopping at thrift stores, and cutting back on spending in general. Not only are they getting less money from their parents, but they're also earning less money, since teen hiring has dropped by 5% since March 2007. Some are saying this could be the worst teen retail slump in 17 years, with high gas and food prices finally triggering teens to go retro and look for sales.
This trend is good for stocks like Aeropostale which is known as the sale priced teen retailer. This article points out that their 2 for $20 sales that seem to be pushing their same-store sale numbers up. They also seem like pretty decent items for the most part and aren't really cheapy looking at all.
Also Buckle seems unaffeced because they sell to higher end teens who don't slow down their shopping patterns due to the high cost of gas and food prices. Looking at their sites it seems that Aeropostale has some pretty decent stuff at very reasonable prices. Also Buckle looks like a more trendy place filled with more hipster styles.
The funny thing is that many of their polo shirts which I use for work are somewhat reasonably priced at $40 while Abercrombie is selling their polo's for about $50 or so. Buckle also has a number of shirts that are from different companies like Quicksilver, Billabong, Hurley etc. that are not the Buckle brand as well. It seems like a good idea to provide floor space to sell a product that another company has to shoulder the costs of creating. I guess the high end and the low end are the only decent growth areas in retailing and teen retailers are no different.
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