The National Retail Federation released its Back To School annual survey findings which spawned several stories such as this one from newsnet5. The survey data, located here, indicates that back to school shopping for Kindergarten through College will hit $68.8B this year, as shown below:
.jpg "NRF chart")
The NRF press release provides a detailed breakout of shopping expenditures by category and indicates the fact that:
“…with the average person [is] expected to spend $60.46 on gift cards or pre-paid cards.”
So while there remains significant doubt about the status of the U.S. economy, parents remain willing to spend on their kids.