US Teens Lower Spending & Consumption Expectations

HopeTracker| Abercrombie & Fitch reported a record-breaking, December 15, 2009 opening in Ginza, Tokyo, an event cited as confirmation of Abercrombie’s international strategy. The company will open a second Japanese-based store in Fukuoka later in 2010. Abercrombie has flagship stores in London (2007) and Milan (2009).

With same-store sales down 17 percent in November in Abercrombie’s US operation, and American teens pushing back on paying $80 for a polo shirt, Abercrombie is treading water with 19 straight months of same-store losses.

John D. Morris, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, has been talking to teens around the country. If young Americans were initially sheltered from the effects of America’s big recession, today they understand that the world is not their oyster, when the subject is spending.

Teens in communities as upscale as Armonk, New York say their expectations about money and consumption have changed. Morris doesn’t report any change in the values teens hold dear, but instead as sober assessment of the current economic landscape. via NYTimes