This grandma’s ten year old grandson has made it clear what he does not want is clothes as a present. I thought it was because he is a boy. Not so much. He is into Under Amour, and so are my seven year old granddaughter and six year old grandson. Needing the newest brand is limited to LeBron sneakers!
It seems that this is a trend nationally in the clothing industry. The New York Times, January 31, 2014, in “Where Have All The Teenagers Gone?, by Elizabeth Harris, says “Luring young shoppers into traditional teenage clothing stores has become a tough sell.” The article speaks to teenagers, but the content applies equally to my younger grandchildren.
Of course, on line shopping has taken over. I love this part of the article as it is so true:
“When I think of who is shopping at Abercrombie,” she said, “I think it’s more of people’s parents shopping for them.”. . . Matthew McClintock, an analyst at Barclays, pointed to Justin Bieber as an example.”Today, if you saw that Justin Bieber got arrested drag-racing,” Mr. McClintock said, “and you saw in the picture that he had on a cool red shirt, then you can go online and find that cool red shirt and have it delivered to you in two days from some boutique in Los Angeles.”
Speaking with my grandchildren, I am ready to find that special item on the Internet. I recently searched until I found the 2014 Olympics GO USA mittens in children’s sizes and sent those to them. Go to Universal Store.
However, what the grandchildren really covet are electronics. To show that younger grandchildren are on the same page as teenagers, read this that Ms Harris wrote:
“Probably the most important thing a teenage boy has is his smartphone,” said Richard Jaffe, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “Second, is probably his sneakers. Third, maybe, we get to his jeans.” What may trump all of those, Mr. Jaffe said, are gaming systems, especially over the last few months, because Xbox and PlayStation both released new game consuls in 2013.
My ten year old grandson claims he is the only child in his class without a I phone. Wow! His parents are willing to buy him a flip phone for emergency use, which is what he says he must have a telephone for. He is mortified. His parents let us buy him a I pad mini for a holiday present (I have found out that many of my grandma friends also splurged and got this one big gift). I do not think they will let us get him an I phone. They can say no. They can say,”just because your friends have an I phone does not make it appropriate for a ten year old to carry an I phone.”
Parents say no, and if they say no, however hard it is not to indulge and over indulge a grandchild, we grandparents must follow their lead. Maybe next year, the Xbox will be what he wants from us grandparents.
So, grandparents, think anything electronic first. Even cash for apps is desired.
What the grandchildren don’t want is what the retailers are trying to sell us. They say that the teen clothing stores are empty. They should look in the store in the mall that is crowded with our grandchildren–the Apple store!
Joy,
Mema
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