Via the AP, it seems that thrift is finally catching on in the Under-20 crowd:
NEW YORK - The souring job market and rising costs of the usual teenage indulgences - a slice of pizza, a drive to the mall, the hottest new jeans - are causing teens to do something they rarely do: be thrifty.
It's a far cry from the freewheeling spending of recent years, when teens splurged on $100 Coach wristlet handbags, $60 Juicy Couture T-shirts, and $80 skinny jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch.
Now jobs for teens are less plentiful, and parents who supply allowances are feeling the economic pinch.
Stalwart retailers of teen apparel, such as Abercrombie and American Eagle Outfitters Inc., are reporting sluggish sales, defying the myth that teen spending is recession-proof.
It's even becoming cool to be frugal.
Better late than never, I suppose. Read the whole thing for examples of how teens are tightening their designer belts.
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Kinda old news
Piper Jaffray (they do teen retail research) has been following this trend for several years, doing focus groups with teens to assess the forward fortunes of retailers such as Abercrombie, American Eagle Outfitters, etc.
Their last couple years of reports, and the intuition of their analysts (from talking with thousands of teens), showed that clothing purchases were slowing.
Their reports showed that teens are, however, using discretionary income to buy consumer electronics -- iPods, smart phones (iPhones), laptop computers, dumb cell phones, etc. These are the status items -- even for girls (not a $300 handbag which has the same functionality as the $20 bag you can buy at Target).
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