MEBANE, N.C. — School is officially back in session Monday for most students, which means many families took advantage of this past weekend to do some back-to-school shopping.
WFMY News 2’s Amber Lake spoke to parents at Tanger Outlets Sunday about how inflation has impacted their shopping.
It could be a bit of a shock whenever you check the price tag of most items nowadays, but as some parents said, it's just something you have to deal with right now. Parents say they were hoping to snag a deal or two at the Tanger Outlets this past weekend.
Back-to-school shopping can be a bit of a merry-go-round.
Stevie Howard said he was out Sunday shopping for shoes and clothes for his son.
Daniel Webster was out shopping with his family to find some back-to-school clothes and shoes as well.
This is an annual shopping outing for most.
"We’ve got a daughter going to college so we’ve done this a few times with her and then both of them are in high school," Webster said.
However, there's a new challenge to face this year.
"It’s definitely gone up over the years it’s not too bad. There are some places like that’s why we’re at the outlets because they have a lot of deals and specials and things like that so not horrible but definitely an increase from the way used to be," he said. "It’s the best bang for your buck, you’ve got to get all the stuff they have in all the stores for shoes and things like that, and just running back-to-school specials that’s what we’re hoping for."
The Webster's shop at the outlets almost every year, but said they found more people were out shopping this year.
The Powell family had the same idea, to hit the outlets before the first day of school Monday.
"We hit the Converse store and the Nike store about to head to rack room shoes to try to look for some crocs," Tavion Powell said.
With two in grade school, two in daycare, and higher prices on back-to-school items, the Powell family does everything they can to save.
"One of the things we do is we don’t go out to eat a lot we do a lot at home cooking that’s really the main thing," Powell said.
That, on top of online shopping, has helped them this year.
According to the U.S. inflation calculator, the current annual inflation rate in the United States right now is 8.5%, compared to 7% last year and just 1.4% back in 2020.
Stay connected to local, national, and breaking news: Download the WFMY News 2 app.
►Text the word APP to 336-379-5775