As we approach mid-August, students across the country are preparing for the return to school, which means back-to-school shopping — at least for the families that didn't get a head start earlier this summer. This year, school-related expenses are expected to take a major financial toll on many American families already dealing with inflation. Elizabeth Ebert, a partner at Infosys Consulting, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.

Closing Bell

Saving Tips For Back-To-School Shopping Amid High Inflation

Welcome back to closing bell on cheddar news, everyone. And as we approach mid august, so crazy students across the country are preparing for the return to school, some are already back and that means back to school shopping will be starting soon as well, at least for those families that didn't get a head start earlier this summer. And this year's school related expenses are expected to take a major financial toll on many american families already dealing with inflation Joining us. Now, Elizabeth Ebert, partner at management, consulting company infosys consulting. Thanks so much for joining us. We know total back to school spending is expected to nearly match last year's record high, which was $37 billion. That according to the National Retail Federation. Do you agree with the estimate? And if so, what exactly is it driving the high levels of spending this year? Yeah. You know, I think one of the key drivers is a normalization in the consumer behaviors here. We're already seeing many of those demand statistics starting to match what we saw before the pandemic and quarantine. So that means, you know, normalization in terms of kids being in the classroom. Uh, and a little bit of that fall cycle starting just as it anticipates is anticipated as opposed to the last two years where it was, uh, you know, just later. And, and reflecting all of the uncertainty, uh, you know, the other issue is, um, this is going to be a promotion rich season. Um, our, our retailers are dealing with a little bit of an overhang from a summer inventory, summer merchandizing inventory standpoint. So I think as we see uh customers returning to the stores and and there's a lot of promotions even on on amazon right now, um there's going to be a real desire to have those shoppers take a little bit extra with them as they go and help clear out some of the seasonal merchandise um to make sure that there's room for for the holiday season, which is going to be upon us in no time at all. Yeah, so while to think it's almost upon us again and we know we we talk about inflation so often it's shifted a lot of those spending patterns causing families to focus only on necessities. So what school related products or items are being impacted the most by inflation right now, you know, it's it's not hugely affected. Um you know, we we've certainly seen food categories uh affected, that's not back to school item. Um You know, I think it's going to be counterbalanced by a great promotion season. Um You know, the other thing is there's a little bit of catch up spending. I've seen a lot of research that is talking about replenishment, so maybe over the past few years, um students have been making do just because they're working from home, they haven't necessarily had those monstrous teacher supply low that I recall with my Children. Um So I think there's it's sort of a replenishment model more than anything at this point, that's going to, to fuel the buying. Um, the promotions are going to make, make parents feel good about the bargains that they're getting. And we even saw an improvement in the consumer sentiment numbers this week. So, um, you know, consumer sentiment has been, uh, you know, way down quite a bit though. It hasn't necessarily affected the consumer sales. We've, we seem to to shop when we feel bad, We seem to shop when we feel good. So, um, my feeling with that and then, you know, some of the tempering of the inflation numbers earlier this week as well. I think it's gonna all add up to a reasonably solid back to school season. Yeah, I do want to ask you if you have any insight on the tech front when it comes to back to school though, because I think a lot of us think about, you know, pen paper and things like that. But so many kids these days use tech really heavily. And we've talked about, you know, the chip shortage. We're just talking about Apple amping up some of their devices, is there anything you can share on the back to school front when it comes to tech? Mm hmm. You know, I think we saw that once we were shifting to, uh, the studying from home model where kids were at home, uh, parents needed to boost up some of their home pcs, some of the, uh, e books that the students were using didn't work quite as effectively in a work from home full time environment as it did within the classroom. Um, you know, most of the time, the model that we see with students and tech is that a school district supplied for, better for worse. Um, the replenishment cycle on that replacement cycle for students um, is probably not quite what parents want to see. We see sort of beat up equipment. Um, so I think, you know, from a, from a tech standpoint, most of the bump that we, uh, that we saw as with the work with the study from home, um, cycle is, is probably the best of what we're seeing from a tech standpoint. Otherwise, it's it's normalizing back to that that list of pencils and crayons and three ring binders and new comforters for college dorms. All right, Elizabeth Ebert. Partner at management, consulting. Company. Emphasis, consulting. Thank you so much for that insight. I'm sure a lot of families are looking for it right now.