By Sharon Ginn, Times Correspondent
In Print: Friday, July 31, 2009
Sharon Britton and her son Connor, 6, shop for uniforms at the Golden Egg in South Tampa on Tuesday afternoon. “This has probably been the most challenging of all my years,” said Golden Egg owner Robin Bertran. She was referring to the decline in back-to-school retail spending.
TAMPA — Many parents love the ease of shopping for school uniforms, especially when budgets are tight and an embroidered shirt can be had for as little as $13 or $15.
But families have been slower to stock up this year, local shop owners say. They're stalling until they have to buy and are being more careful about shopping only for what they need.
"This has probably been the most challenging of all my years," said Robin Bertran, who opened the Golden Egg 25 years ago. Her store at 3625 S Manhattan Ave. serves public and private schools throughout South Tampa, as well as a few beyond.
"Even in the private schools, people are trying to make sure that the expenditures they are making are something they have to have," she said. "If they can use their shorts from last year … they're not buying new ones."
Bertran is hardly alone: Back-to-school retail spending is expected to slip 7.7 percent this year from 2008, according to a survey released this month by the National Retail Federation.
Owners of stores that provide uniforms consider themselves fortunate, however. They usually have agreements with local schools, which they say protect them somewhat from the whims of spooked consumers.
"Parents say, and we hear this over and over again, if I had to go to the mall and buy clothes for the school year, it would be 10 times as much," said Rob Risse, whose Risse Brothers operates stores in central Tampa, Orlando and Clearwater.
Still, Risse said, sales this year are down slightly. His company has picked up seven new contracts — some schools new to uniforms, others switching uniform companies — but a back-to-school rush hadn't shown signs of starting this week.
"People are waiting until the last week to go out and spend money on uniforms," he said. "Everybody comes in at once."
Becky Pfeiffer, who owns the Tampa franchise of Educational Outfitters at 3904 W Hillsborough Ave., said she hears from private schools that "enrollment is slightly down," but at the same time hears enrollment at charter schools is on the rise.
"We are even (compared to last year) and doing well," she said. "People are not buying as much, but I have added some new schools."
At Ataly Graphics at 5828 Johns Road in North Tampa, school uniform sales make up only about 10 percent of the business, said owner Alan Jones. He has been outfitting area school kids since 1981 and over the years has taken on public school clients including Citrus Park Elementary, Schwarzkopf Elementary and Smith Middle. Uniform policies make economic sense for any family, he said.
"The parents win," Jones said, "because they truly have to spend less outfitting their kids. … I don't see why they don't do it all over the place."
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