• August 23, 2011

A new survey from the National Retail Federation finds that down-to-the-wire parents are more likely to shop at department stores, clothing stores and Web sites for their last-minute school purchases this year. The average family has wrapped up only 43% of its shopping for kids, K through 12.

The survey, conducted for the NRF by BIGResearch, finds that while discounters are still the top destination for last-minute shoppers (56.9%), the number of people who plan to shop at department stores, specialty clothing stores and online is expected to rise this year, with 47.1% planning on a department-store visit, up sharply 42.7% last year. And 40.8% say they intend to shop at a specialty-clothing store, up from 34.3% last year.