Jun 8, 2007

Shop girls: Teen buying habits not so over indulgentBy Ylan Q. MuiWashington Post

They agonize over price. They’re thoughtful, not impulsive. They arrive at the mall with information and purpose. They actually care about what their parents would think about those micro shorts.

They are teenage girls, and this is how they shop.

It wasn’t what we expected to find when we spent a recent Saturday afternoon shopping at the region’s largest mall, Tysons Corner Center in Virginia, with a horde of teenagers.

This is a generation often considered indulged, equipped with cell phones and credit cards at an early age. Teens’ purchasing power is enormous. Last year, they rang up $179 billion in sales, according to Teen Research Unlimited. But they can be a fickle demographic, helping to send sales at a retailer soaring one season only to abandon it the next for another with fresher merchandise.

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