Report: College Back-to-School Spending Up 13%

Read the full article from BrandWeek here: Report: College Back-to-School Spending Up 13%

The gist - kids have more money this year than last. Their spending power is up 13% from last year. And not just on tuition, books, room and board, food - college students are spending about 3% more on discretionary purchases than last year. This underscores the importance of Back-to-School for PacSun.

Furthermore, this article reinforces the idea that corporate social responsibility has now become an expectation amongst college-aged consumers:

“So what makes college students choose certain brands? Social responsibility is a driving factor for purchases, according to Alloy. That’s been the case for the last three to four years, said Nelson. Forty-eight percent of this year's respondents said social responsibility is important, versus 43 percent last year. Nelson added that it’s gotten to the point where consumers have come to expect social and environmental traits from brands.”

And while their older counterparts are still worried about economic recovery, they're spending more money because they have a rather optimistic outlook on the economy. 42% of them expect the economy will improve in the coming year, compared to the 31% of people 35 and older.