Back-To-School Shopping: When And Where?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Fourth of July is barely in our rearview mirror, but some are already thinking about the start of the upcoming school year.
Lisa Lipins made a special 1,600-plus mile trip from Arizona to the Mall of America to pick up new school clothes for her three kids.
"The nice thing about shopping in Minnesota is that you don't have sales tax. It's fun to get a variety of things for back to school," Lipins said.
According to the National Retail Federation, back-to-school and college spending topped $82 billion last year. University of St. Thomas Finance professor David Vang says its normal to start seeing back-to-school ads right around this time.
"Things are getting tighter especially with internet suppliers and things like this, so a lot of stores that still have some brick and mortar simply have to push more advertising all year round," Vang said.
Parents and students could wait until right before the school year starts to pick stuff up on sale, but there is a risk.
"If you try and wait until the last minute, the things might be discounted and so forth, but the risk you are taking is a lot of schools and a lot of teachers have very specific lists of what they want students to have," Vang said.
More than half of consumers say they strategically plan their school shopping around sale events like Prime Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day. That's according to the National Retail Federation.