Statistically Speaking

This week marks the beginning of the academic year, which means new classes, new friends, and new school supplies. “Back-to-school shopping” has become a familiar phrase in most homes across the nation and the world. Whether you define necessary supplies for school as notebooks and calculators or purses and jeans, back-to-school shopping is a hallmark of academic life:

$7.4 billion: amount of money spent at American family clothing stores in August 2010

9,373: number of office supply and stationery stores in 2008

$2.2 billion: amount of sales at bookstores in August 2010

28,429: number of family clothing stores in the U.S. in 2008

Source: www.census.gov