This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. We've talked a lot about consumer spending. It does seem like consumers are out there, and I am curious about kind of the back to school shopping season and what she is bringing. So let's bring in Mary Lou Gardner, Associate partner for Consumer Package Goods, Retail and Logistics at Emphasis Consulting. She's on the phone from Naples, Main may Low. It is
nice to have you here with Paul and myself. Tell us a little bit about what the work you guys are doing and what you're seeing when it comes to back to school shopping. Sure, Hi Carol, Hi Paul. Nice to be on with you with bloom So what we're seeing right now is kind of an interesting show. We're seeing a shift from online shopping more into retail, which is,
you know, kind of a flip from last year. But what we're seeing and what we're expecting is consumers are expecting to spend up, going to spend more but get less, meaning the I spend more for each item because of inflation, and then with the whole shrink inflation. You know that if they buy a box of crans, for example, they're going to get less crans in the box. So there's um that going on. But then there's the other half of the population that they're saying they're going to spend less.
They have to spend less because of the pressures on their budget. They can spend They're going to buy what they absolutely need for back to school, so be the crans and the pencils and the composition books, but kind of hold off on some of the other more discretionary items. For example, maybe wait to buy that backpack, or wait to buy that lunchbox so we use one from the year before. So they're really trying to be smart about their choices and how they use their spending dollars. How
are retailers adopting here? Is this simply a function of lowering price to lore shoppers in the store or get them to click. What's really the strategy for this back to school? So retailers are you know there, as you know, are struggling because they still have the excess inventory. So let's use Walmart and as an example. Walmart and um Target have both been very transparent about the fact that
they had excess inventories. Um, they're trying to pull people out of the food aisle where they're spending most of their dollars and trying to pull them into the other aisles. So clothing is a really good example where they're investing in price and clothing in order to pull them beyond you know, just filling their basket with their food, with their dollars they have to spend. But they're investing in some categories like that that the retailer isn't look like
they're going to win. Back to school? Are the more discounted mass retailers dollar store versus kind of online and versus some of the more expensive ones. Merrily, What does it tell you about the mindset of the consumer right now? More broadly speaking? And um, the outlook for spending which has been so it's always important to the US economy specifically, but you know, we all kind of marvel that the consumer has been out there and being able to continue spending.
We do under when it stops. So what does it tell you, if anything, more broadly about consumers. Yeah, So what we're hearing from the consumers is there you know, there are little cautiously optimistic but also being still being cautious. So they are still spending, but what you know, inflation has come down a tiny bit and gas prices have
come down a little bit. That hasn't necessarily translated to prices coming down in retail because there's still the increased labor costs are still the you know, supply chain pressures, so they're not seeing it. So they're still being cautious and they don't want to be in a situation where we really do head into a recession at some point
in time. And you know, there's they have only so much in that budget, so if they're not out there, they're not making more, it's you don't be salaries didn't keep pace with inflation, so there dollars have to stretch further. So while they're spending more going into this season, there's still trying to be a lot smarter about it. And I think through Caustius, how yeah, may us, how about electronics? It seems like every kid when he or she was working from home, I had to have a laptop or
chrome thing. Majigi, where are we now? And that kind of spending is that facing some tough comps? So yes, there there forecasted to be down year over year. Electronics definitely will be down. There's two things contributing to that. One is that many of the schools have provided some of the technology, you know, that was needed when we were in that hybrid model and people didn't have the technology.
And then it's one of those categories where if you look at if I don't need the technology right now, why don't I wait until Black Friday where the prices may be a lot more competitive. Or I'm going to use that laptop or you know that the iPad or whatever technology I have been using, I'm used that for another year or two because I don't need it. Um, I don't need to upgrade it to still be able to go to school and do my homework. All Right, we're gonna leave it there, Hey, Mary Lou, thank you
so much. Mary Lou Gardner. She's Associate partner for Consumer Package Goods, Retail and Logistics of an Emphasis, Consulting on the phone from Naples, Main