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The $1,151.68 freshman

And that's just the beginning. While back-to-school shopping for kids means backpacks and a new notebook, the average college student can rack up bills in the thousands.

By MARK ALBRIGHT and DONNA WINCHESTER
Published August 28, 2005

Debbie Fischer figured move-in day for her 19-year-old son Nic's sophomore year at the University of Florida could not be as hectic or expensive as the first.

Wrong.

"You get here and realize "I need this' or "I forgot to bring that' or "this isn't working,' " said Fischer, a St. Petersburg school teacher making her third trip before noon to Lowe's in Gainesville.

Last year Nic lived in a dorm. This year he moved into an apartment. But the Fischers quickly found their jam-packed Toyota Sienna and a $3,500 bedroom furniture delivery from Rooms To Go fell far short of meeting all his needs.

"Wal-Mart, $33; Publix, $32; Lowe's, $92; CVS, $22; Sam's Club, $97; Stein Mart, $70; Albertsons, $35," she said, rifling through her checkbook before deciding that Nic's back-to-school bill this year approached $5,000.

Such scenes - a rite of passage in many families - have been playing out on college campuses all over the country this month. Joining the rush this year are growing ranks of retailers who have discovered what college bookstores have known for decades: the back-to-school spending boom for college students is even bigger than the one for K-12 kids that gets all the attention.

Now these big retailers are tapping into a spending spree that has blossomed into the fastest growing season in retailing for many stores. Back-to-school shopping for college students has surged past Halloween as the second biggest period on the calendar behind the Christmas holidays for chains that sell general merchandise.

"The spending power of college students is something retailers are just beginning to grasp," said Tracy Mullin, president and chief executive of the National Retail Federation. "There is no sign this market is slowing down."

Indeed, per capita back-to-school spending for a college freshmen soared to $1,151.68 this year, almost double the total back-to-school budget for families with K-12 children. Contrary to conventional wisdom, spending doesn't trail off among sophomores, juniors or seniors.

College parents and students expect to fork over $34.4-billion to stores in the monthlong season, up a stunning 34 percent over last year, according to BIG Research, a Columbus, Ohio, market research firm. That's almost triple the $13.4-billion Americans spent to get all their K-12 kids ready for school.

If consumers buy as much as they plan, spending on college students will be one of the brightest spots in what has been a decent - but hardly great - back-to-school season for retailers.

At a heavily residential campus such as the University of Florida in Gainesville, retailers turned up the promotional heat to grab their share of the bounty. Lowe's passed out free pizza, smoothies and sodas while bankers and cell phone sellers trolled for new accounts from tents set up in the parking lot.

Target distributed 54-page catalogs of college merchandise and dorm room decor. Bed Bath & Beyond helped students with an online checklist and ordering from home with pickup at a Gainesville store. Target even outfitted rented school buses with the chain's trademark bull's-eye for a free shuttle service between dorms and its Gainesville store.

"Parking here was gridlocked on move-in day - even in the tow-away zones," said Becky Zaccardi, graduate director at Mallory Hall. "A lot of people took the shuttle to Target so they wouldn't lose their parking space."

Discount stores were flooded by families - some maneuvering up to seven loaded shopping carts through the checkout. It was so noisy inside many families were forced outside to coordinate strategy on their cell phones. Target clerks helped uncrate purchases in the parking lot to wedge everything into the family van.

"We sold out of ethernet cable for dorm computers four times last week, and sold just kaboodles of refrigerators, waffle irons and toaster ovens," said Target store manager Kelly Racht.

Even at discount stores near a small school such as Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, a sharp-eyed retailer sensed something was up when he spotted a rush on refrigerators, hangers and plastic storage items flying through the checkout counter.

"This store has only been here a couple of months, so I knew that Eckerd was nearby," said St. Petersburg Wal-Mart Supercenter manager Michael Musemeche, "But believe me, we're going to go after their business a lot more next year."

College back-to-school spending changed considerably the past few years after retailers discovered many of today's college students have much deeper pockets. The two biggest forces driving up college spending are the soaring cost of textbooks and young people's relentless demand for electronic gadgets. A study by Best Buy Inc. found the average college student today comes armed with eight gadgets: desktop and laptop computer, cell phone, iPod, gaming system, digital camera, photo printer and stereo.

"Actually, students are making iPods the hard drive for their stereo systems, which still have the elaborate speaker systems," said Paula Baldwin, a spokeswoman for Best Buy Inc.

At large commuter schools such as the University of South Florida in Tampa, retailers nuzzle up to the back-to-school needs of more than 4,000 students who live on or around the Tampa campus.

A Target store within a mile of USF, which gets a 25 percent lift in traffic the month school opens, parks its featured back-to-school college goodies right by the front entrance.

The story is the same at University Mall, which has made itself an extension of the USF campus next door. About 2,800 to 4,000 students take USF classes daily in five of the mall's 16 movie theaters. The mall pays to be a destination on the on-campus and off-campus bus routes.

"There are misperceptions about college students today. They are very savvy shoppers and they have a lot of discretionary income," said mall manager Tom Locke. "It's the parents who are broke."

Indeed, the image of the always-broke college student has changed. Jobs that pay $8 to $10 an hour are plentiful. Because many take out large loans to pay high tuition and housing costs, they also budget some of that borrowed cash for living expenses.

"The credit card companies today don't think twice about loading up an 18-year-old college student with four credit cards," said Joe Picotta, vice president of BIG Research.

Around the country, many retailers are more actively chasing down back-to-college business. Bed Bath & Beyond set up wedding-style gift registries so friends and family can contribute and compare notes on student dorm decorating wish lists. Best Buy passed out coupons at bookstores in four South Florida colleges.

Both chains set out several model dorm rooms at many college campuses this year. The Geek Squad from Best Buy even floated around offering free advice on gadget set-up.

Lowe's in Gainesville hired three local radio stations to broadcast live remotes on move-in day.

"We are Lowe's biggest back-to-college volume store," said store manager Ken Reeves, who began planning the hoopla six months ago.

Bookstores are still holding onto a third of the back-to-school business thanks mainly to textbook sales. Students learned to shrug off sticker shock at $100 books as publishing houses and authors fine tune their time-tested strategy to fend off the threat of cheaper used books: updating new editions of textbooks annually and persuading professors to require workbook-style study guides that can only be used once. One of the priciest at USF is a $185 textbook package for a chemistry course.

Students will spend about $5.6-billion on apparel and shoes this year. About $750-million of that will be lavished on collegiate logo merchandise. At USF that ranges from a $19.95 USF lava lamp in school colors to a $9 green and gold wig to this year's new school spirit-wear that for the fist time carries a Big East Conference logo.

"We sell about a third of all collegiate logo merchandise nationally during the first month of the school year," said Kim Walsh, vice president of marketing for the Collegiate Licensing Co., an Atlanta firm that handles licensed gear for all but a few universities.

Perhaps more surprising: men spend more back-to-school money than women - even on shoes.

"It may be only two pairs and they may wear them for four years, but college men will buy whatever is the latest, top-of-the-line athletic shoe," Picotta said.

The other big growth area is $3.6-bilion on home furnishings that students use to deck out drab dorm rooms.

"A few years ago it was mostly posters," said Zaccardi, a residence hall director at the University of Florida. "Now it's almost anything because students see their room as a reflection of their personality."

Parents of a few students hire professional movers to lug in entire bedroom vanity sets from home. Many more glam up their living areas on the cheap with such items as shower curtains, wall paint and throw rugs. One Mallory Hall room looks like a Parisian street scene. Another uses animal print bedspreads and a wall mural to create a jungle look. Others are done up in the latest trendy color combinations for dorm decor - hot pink and lime or pink, brown and powder blue.

"It's reminds me of the Partridge Family bus," said Racht, the Target store manager.

Big sellers are anything students can use to jam more stuff into small living spaces. So stores load up on organizing systems and multiple purpose containers that can maximize space.

"We're stocked up on just about anything you can use for storage over, under or behind something," Bari Fagin, spokeswoman for Bed Bath & Beyond, adding that students aim for only inches to spare when a closet door is closed.

Beds are bunked or frequently elevated loft-like. That creates cozy living areas underneath that are furnished with futons. Travel trunks or shipping crates are the preferred coffee table because they double for storage.

One of the hottest sellers at Target: multicolored floor-to-ceiling Medusa lamps and a Todd Oldham-designed corduroy ottoman with collapsible legs so it stashes under the bed. At Bed Bath & Beyond customers are snapping up tiny nightstands that hold a lamp, clock and a shelf for reading material and framed photos. But the big draw is bedding, because college mattresses are longer than standard.

Another lesser known must-have: a lengthy cable for all those computers. With school-imposed limits of only four plug-ins for the six electrical outlets per room, wiring can get vexing. Many students insist on having their own minirefrigerator rather than sharing. The kitchen area in some Mallory Hall suites in Gainesville has a lineup of seven George Foreman grills.

For many parents, however, it's reasonable to splurge for perhaps one last time on their offspring.

"I'm not going to let my child live in a slum," said Debbi Fischer, whose son secured a Bright Futures scholarship that pays all his tuition. "I'll live without something before I let him live without something."

- Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or 727 893-8252.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 17:48:02]